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After two hours and forty minutes spent in the company of some of the finest actors of this generation, plus several from previous generations and one or two that show promise for the next generation, there just isn't anything left to say about David Fincher's long-anticipated Zodiac. Starring Mark Ruffalo as Inspector David Toschi, the lead detective on the case, Zodiac plays like the made-for-TV movie spinoff of some classic 70s detective show that doesn't actually exist but should. It'd be a hit in reruns today.

The Zodiac killer terrorized San Francisco and its environs in the late 60s/early 70s, producing a string of unsolved mysteries and a stack of ominous anonymous letters. No arrests were made. All that ultimately came out of the affair was a bestselling true crime book penned by Robert Graysmith, played here by Jake Gyllenhaal, working against his natural good looks to imbue Graysmith with a quirky, nerdy awkwardness that spirals into an obsession that's more fanboy than Parallax View.

Fincher takes a straightforward, unstylized approach that delivers all of the key exposition in an economical manner. The film is never boring, but it never quite soars, either, despite some stunning aerial photography and committed performances all around. Robert Downey, Jr. is the standout; he plays San Francisco Chronicle writer Paul Avery as if Wayne Gale from Natural Born Killers actually survived the riot at Batonga and mellowed out, thanks to booze and pills. He has great chemistry with both Ruffalo and Gyllenhaal. All three men are undone by the Zodiac killer in one way or another, and Fincher and screenwriter James Vanderbilt succeed in shading each story differently.

Of all of Fincher's films, this one has the lowest re-watchability factor. At one point, Fincher tweaks audience expectations and references a key scene from the classic American serial killer movie--all to make the point that the Zodiac's story ends up not really being a story, per se, because everybody knows that it still doesn't have an ending. And without an ending, there's no real joy in the second viewing, because you already know there's nothing to discover. In the end, Zodiac is as inscrutable as those damned handwritten letters.