Another sign of his attention to detail and ultimately another reason why the film succeeds is some superb casting. Robert Downey Jr. steals much of the film despite the fact that his character fades away toward the end. He is as erratic as ever, displaying a sharp wit that gives the audience something more than just Jake Gyllenhaal’s boyish good looks. Gyllenhaal, an actor of whom I am not normally a fan, plays the naïve Robert Graysmith quite well. Graysmith was the boy scout to Avery’s spastic attention whore, and Gyllenhaal nails it with a sense of innocence that seems natural even though it is at times a bit of an annoyance. The rest of the cast falls into place very well, including Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards, who have great on screen chemistry as the pair of inspectors tasked out to find the Zodiac.

Ultimately my only problem with a film like this is a two-fold affair. On one side, the film is painfully long at two hours and 40 minutes. If you have a self-diagnosed case of ADD like myself, you will find your eyes burning and your mind wandering as the film wears on. But despite the length of his film, Fincher pieces together a story that does not loiter, it just has a lot to say. Sadly, based on much of the story, this film could have been longer. Heaven forbid they ever come out with a director’s cut a la Oliver Stone’s Alexander.

The other inherent problem I found with Zodiac is that it is hard to get behind a film which you know has no real ending. We know that they are not going to catch the killer, we know that the case is still a mystery today, and yet we are somehow interested in it anyway. Could it be that we are so enamored with real life serial killers, or is it that we just want to freak ourselves out that the real Zodiac may still be out there? No matter what your reason, I would recommend giving this one a look. Just don’t plan on being home early.

Final Grade:

Zodiac is in theaters March 2, has a running time of 160 minutes and is rated R for some strong killings, language, drug material, and brief sexual images.