Zodiac: When All the President's Men Meets Law & Order

Mounting a movie that tackles the Zodiac serial killings case comes with a built-in problem: it's still unsolved. The current film directed by Fight Club's David Fincher, therefore, ironically faces a similar situation faced by the makers of All the President's Men. That movie was released in 1976, after Richard Nixon had resigned. Despite the fact that everybody knew how it turned out, screenwriter William Goldman took the considerable risk of fashioning it as a kind of detective story in which newspaper reporters replaced the traditional hard boiled private eye. The result was, arguably, the best movie of the best decade for American movies ever.

Zodiac is also fashioned as a detective story involving newspaper reporters, as well as cops. And despite the fact that it remains unsolved, the ending is still known to most people who will pay money to see it, i.e., that by the end they won't know for sure who the killer really was. The screenwriters take a risk similar to Goldman's, however, by fingering one particular suspect by the end of the movie. Unfortunately, this is done by combining evidence involving two separate suspects. The best advice I can give regarding Zodiac is to ignore it as a revelatory experience and instead enjoy it as one of the best-acted ensemble movies since, well, All the President's Men.

Those expecting Zodiac to be Silence of the Lambs or, worse, Dirty Harry may be surprised, but shouldn't be disappointed. Zodiac takes a serious, underplayed approach to the subject. At times it comes off like an exceptional episode of Law & Order, at other times like an exceptional episode of Lou Grant. Where Zodiac excels is in seamlessly combining elements of a newspaper movie, a police procedural, a character study and a serial killer movie. In fact, Zodiac is without question the best newspaper movie since All the President's Men and points up my earlier contention that this genre is ripe for a comeback.