Recently David Fincher might have somewhat inexplicably chosen to focus on adapting what are ostensibly airport shelf fillers - the kind of paperback thrillers read by countless holiday makers on planes and beaches - but his earlier work demonstrated a more unconventional approach to genre filmmaking. Zodiac, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo and Robert Downey Jr. as three men caught up in the investigation of the eponymous real life serial kiler, is certainly one of his most formally daring movies. After all, the killer was never caught, so the neat resolution audiences often demand from such thrillers is impossible to deliver. Instead, Zodiac works as an intricate procedural in which the obsessions of the investigators takes precedence over the vile crimes of the killer. Unsurprisingly, such an unconventional approach to structure was appreciated by critics and Fincher's film picked up a decent share of awards nominations, but when it came to the box office it wasn't long before it lost out to 300 and Wild Hogs. It's perhaps his most mature movie yet, which may explain why mainstream audiences weren't in a rush to see it.
