Main Cast: Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, Ryan O'Neal, Kim Dickens, Angela Featherstone
Release Year: 1998
Country: US
Run Time: 115 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Jake Kasdan made his feature film directorial debut with this oblique thriller about eccentric private detective Daryl Zero (Bill Pullman) and his sardonic front man partner Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller). After the two are hired by blackmail victim Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal), Zero sets up a sting operation and soon focuses on his suspect, Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens), a woman he met at a health club. Thinking Zero is an accountant, she asks him to look over her tax return. Clues form a trail to hitman Kragan Vincent (Matt O'Toole), who could be Gloria's father. Amid the romance and revenge, Zero manages to write a few songs (actually written by Pullman and Kasdan). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
The set-up for Zero Effect is promising: A hermetic genius solves mysteries with his Sherlock-like powers of observation and the help of his increasingly embittered sidekick. Though the film ends up falling just a little short of its potential, it provides a fresh take on the detective genre. The mystery is chock-full of twists and turns, including a high-spirited and atypical love-interest Kim Dickens who may be more than she appears. Daryl Zero's reclusiveness and curiosity make for some original and amusing scenes, as when he gets on a treadmill next to his client, who has no idea that Zero is the rarely-seen mastermind he's hired. The relationship between Zero and Arlo is also pleasingly unique, one of mutual admiration, friendship and, for Arlo, sheer frustration -- emotions that suit Ben Stiller's comic edge very well. Occasionally the film is a little flat, taking too much time between laughs or surprises. Zero Effect was written and directed by the then 22-year-old Jake Kasdan, son of veteran filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan, and there is much here to assert the younger Kasdan's promise. ~ Matthew Doberman, All Movie Guide
Though packed with up-and-comers like Dan Bern ("One Dance"), Jamiroquai ("Drifting Along") and Heatmiser ("Rest My Head Against the Wall"), it's old-guard performers like Elvis Costello ("Mystery Dance") and Nick Cave ("Into Your Arms") who truly stand out on the soundtrack to the Jake Kasdan film -- only Mary Lou Lord, contributing her superb early single "Some Jingle Jangle Morning," truly merits discussion in the same breath. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Daryl Zero, a brilliant but reclusive private detective for hire, traditionally works from afar with assistant Steve Arlo as his representative in the field. Socially awkward and inept but extraordinarily confident in his deductive abilities, Zero keeps himself locked in his apartment where he composes awful songs on his guitar and subsists on a diet of tuna, Tab, pretzels, Campbell's soup, and amphetamines. Zero and Arlo are retained by Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal) to investigate who is blackmailing him. During the investigation Zero takes to the field and encounters Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens). Gloria is an equally mysterious young woman. Throughout the film Arlo is torn between his loyalty to Zero and his affection for his girlfriend Jess.
In 2001 Kasdan attempted to resurrect the character Daryl Zero for the NBC television network.[2] He shared the screenwriting duties with Walon Green and directed the pilot. He was also one of the producers. The series was intended to be a prequel, tracing the early adventures of Zero as he and Arlo became a team.[2] The pilot stars Alan Cumming as Daryl Zero and features Krista Allen and Natasha Gregson Wagner. NBC did not pick up the pilot.
