Zero Effect (1998)
Director: Jake Kasdan Cast: Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, Ryan O'Neal, Kim Dickens, Angela Featherstone Screenplay: Jake Kasdan Producers: Jake Kasdan, Janet Yang Runtime: 115 min. US Distribution: Columbia/Castle Rock/Manifest Rated R: language
By Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)
Zero Effect gets its title from the main character, Daryl Zero (Bill Pullman), although we don't understand what it truly means until the very last line of dialogue in the film. Zero is a private investigator, perhaps the best private investigator who ever lived (at least he'd like to think so). However, he's a socially inept being, and eccentric in every possible way -- this fact certainly makes his talents as a private eye even more bewildering than they already are.
Zero's accomplice is Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller), a "normal" guy who does the business side of the job -- he's the one who actually speaks to clients and explains Zero's greatness as an investigator. The opening scene has Steve explaining the many virtues of Zero's talents to soon-to-be client Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal). It turns out that Stark has lost a key to a safe deposit box, and is now being blackmailed for something that he apparently knows nothing about.
Zero takes the case, and the plot thickens. His path leads to a young, pretty paramedic named Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens). Despite her luminous and seemingly-harmless presence, she turns out to be the one blackmailing Stark. Through his investigations, Zero learns why, but not without developing feelings for Gloria -- feelings that, because of his reclusive behavior, are new and confusing to him.
I have no particular affinity towards the mystery genre of film. I can idly enjoy movies about private investigators, and, every once in a while, a film like Chinatown comes a long that blows me away (actually, no private eye film has ever reached Chinatown's greatness). Zero Effect, which is Jake Kasdan's first effort as writer/director, is a film about a private investigator that succeeds in all attempts: it's an original, funny, and completely involving motion picture. With so many cliches available to this genre, I find it amazing that Kasdan avoided all of them. But he didn't just successfully avoid flaws: he has created a great film here, one that had me interested and fascinated from the first shot to the final moment.
Take, for starters, the great cast of characters. Pullman is terrific as Zero, showing a comic flair that I really haven't seen from him since Spaceballs. Zero is the kind of guy who seems at ease switching personalities so frequently as he does here; the fact that he's an almost exaggeratedly twisted, emotionally unstable man outside of his profession is not at all difficult to believe. Pullman's performance is much more layered than it might seem at first glance, and the occasional voice-over as he's going through the motions of his job are insightful and often hilarious.
Ben Stiller is also a very funny individual; he's the kind of comedian who makes normal lines sound funny. "I'll shoot you," he says to Stark at one point. "I have a gun, and everything." His character is also well-drawn, with an interesting subplot involving his girlfriend (Angela Featherstone) who is not happy with the extensive amounts of time he must spend away from her due to the unpredictability of his job. O'Neal also gives his character a bit of depth; and Kim Dickens, last seen (and underused) in Mercury Rising, gets a chance to show us her talent here, giving Gloria the realism this kind of character really needs.
I find Zero Effect to be an immensely funny and witty film. Kasdan's humor is of the best kind -- soft spoken, and mostly dialogue-driven (though there are some great visual jokes). It's the kind of humor that's funny even after you've seen it five or six times. There's one scene in which Zero talks about how detached he is, an how that makes him such a great detective. What we see during this narration are various shots of him sitting on a bed, or standing motionlessly, with his hair destroyed and an utterly blank look painted on his unshaven face, his eyes pointing to something off camera, but obviously to nothing in particular. I can't convey to you how funny this is, but what makes it great film making is that it has a point -- scenes like this are frequent, and they provide solid characterization of Zero.
As a side note, I don't consider myself an average viewer when it comes to comedy (not to sound elitist) -- I find things funny that many do not, and vice versa. There was a clump of people near me in the theater laughing uproariously through this film, and the rest of the theater was relatively silent through most of it. I have a feeling the humor here won't appeal to everyone, but there's certainly enough story and character development to keep anyone's interest.
Jake Kasdan, son of writer/director Lawrence Kasdan, is only 22 years old. I found this out after seeing the film, and I can't remember ever being so impressed with a film maker. His direction is stylish without being pretentious, and his writing is mature, full, and developed. Zero Effect is the kind of film that I'll buy for my collection -- smart, original films like this are rare as it is, but this one actually has a heart and a soul. At the end of the film, I was involved in the characters, and I was satisfied with the outcome. And, with Kasdan's undeniable talent at such a young age, all I can do is hope to see a lot more from him in the future.
***1/2 out of **** (8/10, A-)
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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