Zodiac (2007)

Zodiac is a mystery that never hands you the reveal, and David Fincher knows exactly how frustrating that is. Over 157 minutes it trades chases for phone calls, filing cabinets and handwriting comparisons, and the last stretch narrows down to one cartoonist on his apartment floor, buried in boxes of files. Some people check out right there, and a B-minus CinemaScore suggests plenty did. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Robert Graysmith as a polite guy slowly getting swallowed by a puzzle. Mark Ruffalo’s Toschi is worn down in a way that feels real, and Robert Downey Jr. is great as a reporter who can’t stay out of his own way. The film treats the real victims with care: the attacks are shown plainly, never styled for thrills. It made $84.8 million worldwide on a reported $65 to $85 million budget. An 8.9 because it understands obsession better than almost any crime movie, even while it asks for a lot of patience. $4,709 says you stay put for the closing text and read every line twice.

What works: Fincher turns paperwork, phone calls and dead ends into real tension, and Gyllenhaal, Ruffalo and Downey Jr. each show a different way an unsolved case can wear a person down.

What doesn’t: The long final stretch shrinks down to one man and his files, and the jumps across years make it easy to lose track of who’s who and what changed.

Who it’s for: True crime fans who care more about how an investigation works than about a neat ending.