Zero Effect (1998)

reviewed by
Kevin W. Welch


Zero Effect (1998)

The thriller is one of Hollywood's go-to genres and has been ever since Hitchcock and film noir. The thriller has it all--action, violence, a little sex and desperate characters who provide the occasion for a medition on the evil that men and women do. The thriller can be formulaic, of course, but the genre has a lot of life in it, as Fargo and A Simple Plan show.

Zero Effect is not a thriller. Instead, it belongs to a related genre that you don't see that much of these days, the detective story. It's short on atmosphere and action but very, very long on quirky characters and elegent puzzle plotting. It's not L.A. Confidential or The Usual Suspects by any means. Rather, it's a well- constructed mystery in the literary tradition of Sue Grafton or Donald Westlake.

Actually, the literary source for Zero Effect is Rex Stout. Daryl Zero is the greatest private investigator in the world. Honestly. He's also a paranoid lunatic without any social skills at all, who spends all his time in his heavily secured apartment solving mysteries from his desk and writing terrible love songs. He lives on Tab and tuna fish eaten straight from the can, and behaves rudely whenever he does have occasion to meet people. He only goes out in heavy disguise. He's Nero Wolfe without the orchids and the gourmet cooking and the clas and the general good taste. (Zero even rhymes with Nero).

Steve Arlo is Zero's long suffering Archie Goodwin. He's a former lawyer who hates working for Zero--his extreme quirkiness is just too wearing--but apparently he finds the money good. Besides, he feels needed in some deep way. Unfortunately, his fiance wants to feel needed, too.

Zero and Arlo are hired by a Portland businessman named Gregory Stark. Stark is being blackmailed by someone who gives him incredibly baroque instructions for each money drop. Stark feels strongly that has something to do with a lockbox key that he lost a year earlier. What's in the lock box he refuses to say. The ever-observant Zero knows something smells here.

Zero actually identifies the blackmailer early on--it's not giving much away to say that is is a young woman named Gloria whom he met at Stark's health club. Zero has a number of axioms, though, one of which is that any moron can figure out who or what or when but you need research to figure out why, and research means following the passion, which Zero does for the rest of the movie. He solves the key puzzle. Stark gets desparate. Arlo tries to get out of the life. Zero falls in love with Gloria. By the end, everything falls into place as a twenty-five year old family mystery is solved. It's almost worthy of Ross MacDonald.

Bill Pullman plays Zero not as a figure of fun but as a human being of surpassing skill and terriblle flaws. It's one thing to say that Zero is the greatest P.I. alive, but it's another thing to show that he is. The script uses tricks as old as Arthur Conan Doyle to show Zero's omnicompetence, and Pullman pulls it off perfectly. At the same time, he makes it plausible that the Super Detective is also a sad little emotional cripple. Ben Stiller is the conflicted yuppie Arlo, aware that Zero needs him but equally aware that he has to leave Zero if he's going to have any life for himself. Ryan O'Neal give a weak performance as Stark. He's not really evil, he's just a rich person who thinks he can get away with things because he has a lot of money. Kim Dickens brings intensity to the role of Gloria. She's had a rough life, as we find out, and she is very serious about what she is doing.

Zero Effect is aware of the mystery genre and shows this by gently spoofing some of the conventions of the detective story. It pays tribute to the genre by constructing an elaborate plot that has no holes, where everything is wrapped up at the end, and where there are plenty of surprises, even if you've been watching closely. You should watch the movie carefully, because everything is significant; the well-written script uses every detail to convincing effect. Zero Effect is short on action and menace, but the plot and some of the well-drawn characters make up for that. This is definitely a movie that any fan of well-written literary mysteries ought to see.

Kevin W. Welch
kwelch@mailbag.com

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