Zero Effect
Tags: neo noir, murder, cult, flashback, romantic, revenge

Plot synopsis:
Daryl Zero is the world's greatest detective, but is also a socially maladroit misanthrope. Among his quirks is that he never meets or has direct contact with his clients, instead conducting business through his assistant, Steve Arlo. Throughout the movie, Zero provides narration as he reads lines from his proposed autobiography.
Zero and Arlo are hired by Portland area millionaire Gregory Stark. Stark has lost the key to a safe deposit box and is being blackmailed by an unknown person who forces him to follow elaborate instructions to deliver the cash payments. Zero quickly discovers that the blackmailer is Gloria Sullivan, an EMT with a mysterious past. Zero becomes attracted to Gloria and they sleep together, compromising his trademark objectivity. He lets his guard down and tells her that his abusive father killed his mother and himself.
Stark pressures Arlo to reveal the blackmailer's identity so that he can have that person killed. Arlo must also deal with Zero's absurd demands on his time, which increasingly interfere with Arlo's relationship with his girlfriend Jess.
Zero eventually discovers that Stark had raped Gloria's mother after she broke up with him. She later blackmailed Stark with the threat of exposing him as a rapist, so he had her killed. However, she had already given birth to their daughter Gloria, who was discovered and raised by the hitman who killed her mother. Gloria grew up knowing that Stark was behind her mother's murder, and when her adoptive father contracted a terminal illness, she used the information to pay for medical treatment.
At the meeting to deliver the final blackmail payment, Stark collapses from a heart attack and Gloria is compelled to save his life. She then flees the country with Zero's assistance.

Review: I loved ZERO EFFECT and would heartily recommend the film to anyone who enjoys a great story told with great style and wit.
On this evidence he is a major talent and I can't wait to see what he does next.When I heard about the plot of ZERO EFFECT, the story of an eccentric and reclusive, private detective and that this part would be played by Bill Pullman, I was sold on the film immediately.
The scene where we hear Daryl playing his guitar and singing a song but don't actually see him  for about three minutes was perhaps the most wonderful introduction of a character I've seen in any film.Ben Stiller provides sterling support as Daryl's right hand man and Ryan O'Neal (nice to see him again) and Kim Dickens are also terrific.There are so many great lines in the film, particularly those where Daryl is explaining his methods of deduction and surveillance.
I didn't know what to expect before watching this film, but what I got was a great movie that featured some really good performances.
Bill Pullman is a very underrated actor, and this film he totally steals the show as the reclusive, quirky but 'greatest detective in the world', Daryl Zero.
He certainly suited the part in Zero Effect!Ben Stiller, Ryan O'Neal and Kim Dickens all provide great support in this different but interesting comedy.
The film has great performances by Bill Pullman and Kim Dickens, as well as Ben Stiller.
Daryl Zero is one of the most memorable private detectives I have ever seen and his relationship with Gloria Sullivan (Kim Dickens) is well developed.
If you are considering not watching this movie because you don't like Ben Stiller, well don't let that stop you.
As soon as the "Zero Effect" finished, my wife and I turned to each other and said, "that's one of the best movies we've seen." Bill Pullman shows why he is one of the best, if often overlooked, actors.
Even if, like me, you're not well versed in Sherlock Holmes (which this film is inspired by), you should enjoy this movie.
Bill Pullman is wonderful as Daryl Zero, who lives his professional life by the two "obs; observation and objectivity."  He's quirky without being overly eccentric, and he's very believable and touching.
With regard to something or someone being hazardous, Daryl Zero should come with a personalized warning label which reads: Compared to this guy, arsenic seems like an innocuous and palatable beverage!!The movie starts off with Gregory Stark, (Ryan O'Neal) who is the anonymously wealthy guy.
Arlo (Ben Stiller) presents a cogent case to Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal) that Daryl Zero's doggerel of accomplishments consists of numerous radical approaches and techniques which serve as a means of being the most effective method to "cracking the case"!!
This acute homogenization of deductive logic is what is referred to in this film as the "Zero Effect"!!This movie is loaded with talent, the writing is particularly well thought out, and the innovative genre to this film makes it intellectually gratifying to watch!!!
Not crazy about Stiller or Pullman, but both were great in this movie..
(I'm cracking a smile just thinking about it), Ryan O'Neal and Ben Stiller play to their strengths to great effect.
Ben Stiller usually bugs the crap out of me, but his performance was restrained and I actually liked him a lot more than Bill Pullman's detective character.7/10.
The appeal for most people, I think, seems to be the cleverness of the great detective's mystery-solving, but it is the same cheap, unbelievable tricks pulled by Sherlock Holmes and his immitators for the past hundred years: "I deduce that you are the daughter of a gardener from Shropshire from the dirt on your boots." Nonsense, but it seems tricky and smart, and people get a real rush from identifying with a genius character.
The movie starts out with Ben Stiller as the lead guy, but then he just sort of disappears as Bill Pullman takes over.
It's not the fact that Ben Stiller is necessarily a bad actor, it's just that I don't think he's taken the time to really learn how to perform on the big screen in starring roles.
So ultimately the film turns out to be a detective story.Unfortunately, there are some serious disconnects between the way the characters are supposed to behave and the way it comes across on screen.
The casting and editing were pretty bad, but I would mainly fault the writing, and the performance by Bill Pullman.Who should see this film:-- nobody, even if you think you might want toI'll give Zero Effect an awful 3 out of 10, which is the lowest rating I'll give a film that I could actually get all the way through..
Once the suspense the romance ends, it just doesn't work the rest of the way.All of the characters, except by the one played by Ben Stiller, are either crooked or have no life or no conscience so it was tough for me to like a film that has so many unappealing leads.Bill Pullman's narration was pretty good but there was little else for me to recommend this film..
"Zero Effect" (1998) is a comedy/drama starring Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, Ryan O'Neal, and Kim Dickens.
Darryl works on the case hands-on, though distancing himself from the client, and becomes entangled with a paramedic (Dickens) whom he believes has something to do with the case.The acting is very good, particularly from Pullman and Stiller, and the script by writer/director Jake Kasdan is good, with some quirky twists.
All in all, "Zero Effect" is an odd film - it's not really a comedy, actually coming off more like a drama, and it's very low-key in its delivery, which is surprising with someone like Stiller in the cast.
Even Stiller's situation, and decisions, are understandable and believable.Pullman and Dickens' characters - Daryl "Nick" Zero and Gloria - had a great relationship developing.
But the writer-director apparently didn't want the typical romantic cliché ending, and I can understand that (even though I disagree with the decision in this case).While not a superb masterpiece, this was a good and interesting movie, which will be worth watching again sometime.
"Passion is the enemy of precision." "Objectivity and observation, or the two 'obs', as I call them."  Bill Pullman, Ben Stiller, Ryan O'Neal, and Kim Dickens are all great.
The whole mix being finished off with a twist of the surreal.If David Lynch had ever tried to do a detective movie it would probably have turned out like the Zero Effect..
Ben Stiller and Bill Pullman give great performances in this offbeat comedy about a reclusive yet brilliant detective and his front man who tackle only the most difficult cases.
To give away too much would spoil the movie; suffice to say she is central to both plot and character development.The film is written and directed by Jake Kasdan, and it's an auspicious debut.
While I admit gladly that this was a really entertaining story and Bill and Ben work so well together, for some reason this just wasn't to me an good movie to watch.
Also, Bill happens to fall in love with the blackmailer from what I understand and it gets in the way, big time.Not my type of movie, it was kind of boring to me.
I like private eye movies but Zero Effect just took too long to get started and Daryll Zero himself (although brilliantly played by Bill Pullman) knows so many stupid things that no one would ever remember for any reason.
While "Saving Private Ryan" was the motion picture that year, 1998 was also the year of Roberto Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful," John Travolta's star turn (a spot-on Bill Clinton impersonation) in Mike Nichol's "Primary Colors," and director Terrence Malick's triumphant return with "The Thin Blue Line." But there was also a little-seen gem called "Zero Effect." Directed by Jake Kasdan (son of director Lawrence), "Zero Effect" tells the story of Daryl Zero (Bill Pullman), supposedly the world's "most private detective." In fact, Zero is so private he won't even meet with his clients.
No, "Zero Effect" actually happens to be one of the most interesting mysteries I've ever seen on screen.The plot concerns millionaire businessman Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal) who hires Zero to find out who is blackmailing him for his money.
Yes, "Zero Effect" is a bit offbeat, but again the screenplay is alluring, the script is tight (like something David Mamet might have written, albeit without his trademark stilted dialogue), and the acting is first rate – particularly Kim Dickens as Gloria, the EMT.
The plot is loosely based on the Sherlock Holmes story 'A Scandal in Bohemia.'Zero besides being a great detective is quirky and a misanthrope.
Instead he leaves it to his put upon assistant, Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller).Zero and Arlo are hired by a millionaire Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal) who has lost the key to a safe deposit box and is being blackmailed by an unknown person who forces him to follow elaborate instructions to deliver the cash payments.From early on in the film you see Zero is very much a combination of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes as well as Nero Wolfe.
Ben Stiller in an early role plays the everyman role, dedicated to and yet also frustrated by Zero.The film is small scale and enjoyable which depends on its actors to deliver the goods.
Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller are the Homes and Watson of this Bizarre Cult Favorite that was a Surprise from First Time Director/Writer Jake Kasdan.The Dialog, or the Words are what Moves this Rather Complex Story from A to B.
The Story Itself maybe too Complicated by a Half and the Film may be just a Little too Long for its Own Zeitgeist, but it is Better by Far than a Lot of so called Hip Comedies and Manages to Combine Wit and Personality to take the Movie on an Offbeat Path and Therein Lies the Appeal.It is Character Driven to Say the Least and the Mystery is kind of a Letdown in the End but the Road Taken is Filled with a Number of Pit Stops that are Both Intriguing and Intellectual Enough to make this a Sleeper Worthy of a Watch, and Maybe Even at this Late Date, A Sequel..
Given an interesting script and a good director, Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller certainly can act.This is no comedy, although there are moments where you will laugh.This is not a derivative version of a Sherlock Holmes story, although there are interesting comparisons.I had not heard of this movie when I bought a VHS copy in a close-out bin.
Filmed in Portland, Jake Kasdan's "Zero Effect" casts Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller as detectives investigating who is blackmailing Ryan O'Neal's character...but things aren't quite what they seem.
Bill Pullman plays a nerdy bachelor (Darrel Zero) who is "The greatest private eye in the world" and Ben Stiller is his somewhat put upon assistant.
if you've read and enjoyed Sherlock Holmes stories, you're definitely gonna like this film.
The sly humour, the inspired casting of Ryan O'Neal and Ben Stiller in supporting roles, and the intricate, surprising script make this a must see movies for those who are desperate to see an intelligent film in the sea of dross that Hollywood has been offering up in the past 4 years.
Zero Effect is one of those movies where the more times you watch it the better it becomes.
When most movies need a gag or physical humor to make me laugh out loud, Zero Effect makes me laugh by the characters acting like themselves.
I took a chance seeing this film, since I don't usually watch "private eye"/mystery movies, and I was pleasantly surprised!
THe film starts off with Ben Stiller taking in a proposal from Gregory Stark, a nervous buiseness man who is being blackmailed, he then hires the eccentric Darryl Zero (Bill Pullman) to find out who the blackmailer is and stop him.
Ben Stiller's role was actually the tedious one.I highly recommend this movie for something good and out-of-the ordinary..
Although the film is crammed full of positives, from director JAKE KASDAN through to brilliant supporting performances from BEN STILLER & RYAN O'NEILL, it's the towering turn by BILL PULLMAN as eccentric and asocial super detective DARYL ZERO which really gives this film that something extra special!This little gem gets my highest possible recommendation and I urge anyone who enjoys their comedy dark and restrained to go see this film!!
That little guy grew up to be Jake Kasdan, who wrote and directed "The Zero Effect," the best movie no one's ever seen.
The soundtrack is killer and Bill Pullman is the funniest he's been since "Ruthless People."Ben Stiller is very effective as the lawyer Steve Arlo, without whom Daryl Zero could not be the greatest, strangest detective since Sherlock Holmes.
Paranoid, twitchy and pilled-up, Daryl is the antithesis of all the investigators seen in movies and on tv."The Zero Effect" is also surprisingly moving.
Daryl Zero is one of the finest and most compelling American film characters to come around in a while and his adventures MUST continue in some shape or form.
Great to see Ryan O'Neal taking a middling role and breathing real life into it.If you like edgy detective mystery and smallish-town, real-world "noir", see this movie!
The delightfully off-center characters and the twisting storyline of "Zero Effect" are so enchanting that only two minutes before the movie ended did I realize why there was such an undertow of familiarity to it -- it's a re-make of the first Sherlock Holmes short story, "A Scandal in Bohemia." As Daryl Zero reflected aloud about the young woman he'd fallen for it dawned on me that these were the exact words Holmes used to describe Irene Adler.
Making Pullman's Daryl Zero seem almost normal is the surreal juxtapositon of Ben Stiller's zestful nebbish against Ryan O'Neal's cold-blooded reptile.
When I first saw Zero Effect on a $1.00 rack at a used movie store I thought to myself ,"Ben Stiller in a serious role?
The movie opens with Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller) attempting to convince Portland timber tycoon Gregory Stark (Ryan O'Neal) to enlist the services of his employer, a private investigator named Daryl Zero (Bill Pullman).
Bill Pullman and Kim Dickens just don't make a good on-screen couple, they seem more like close siblings than lovers.The only complaints I have about this film are the lack of an original score and the weak "plot twist".
Zero Effect was the best $1 I have spent in my relatively short lifetime and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who feels like watching a fulfilling detective movie with a touch of humor and romance..
Watching this excellent movie I could not help but think of the Sherlock Holmes story "A scandal in Bohemia".
Bill Pullman shows that he can hold his own in becoming the complex Daryl Zero, Ben Stiller as Steve Arlo is in his element and Kim Dickens as Gloria Sullivan just breeds empathy..
I'd consider this his best performance to date, and he's had a lot of them.Ben Stiller has never impressed me, but, I liked him in this movie.
Her chemistry with Pullman is pretty credible and they both compliment each other wonderfully.Ryan O'Neal has a great role as well, and though I'm not familiar with much of his work, I think he gave a good performance.
Daryl Zero (Bill Pullman) is "the best private detective in the world" and perhaps in the tradition of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson hires the trusty and devoted Steve Arlo (Ben Stiller) to search out his next detective project.
Zero Effect is a film which should not be missed by anyone who enjoys Bill Pullman's performances.
Loud applause for Bill Pullman, Kim Dickens, Ryan O'Neal, and Ben Stiller.
I work at a video store, and let me tell you, with a lot of movies at my disposition (does that word exists?), watching them is sometimes a bit of a monotonous ritual.So, when a few days a go, in the front page of IMDb, the selected Movie f the Day was -you guessed it- Zero Effect, I was quickly drawn into the plot.And not just the plot, or the fact that it was directed by this guy, Kasdan (is he really related to Lawrence Kasdan?), but because of conceiving this two good actors: Pullman and Stiller in the same movie.Whoa!
It's a toss-up..between Zero Effect and While You Were Sleeping as Bill Pullman's two BEST movies !.
Daryl Zero is one of the most original characters that I've seen on film, and the chemistry between Bill Pullman and Ben Stiller makes their screen time together unforgettable.
It is a movie that tells two stories while Zero works one interesting, challenging case.
One of the parts of this movie is the mystery Daryl(Bill Pullman) and his associate (Ben Stiller) are trying to solve.
The writing of Zero Effect is superb, the acting is great and the story is pretty awesome to watch unfold.
This is the most interesting and unique part of the film and Bill Pullman is excellent as the definitely weird Zero, hiding away alone with only Ben Stiller's Arlo knowing who he is.
Bill Pullman gives the best performance I've ever seen him give, Ben Stiller reminds us that he can be effective even when he's taken seriously -- the most darkly talented genius of our time, forever misunderstood, shines nicely here -- and Kim Dickens give one of the most Real performances I've seen from an actress in years.
An amazing accomplishment from such a young director (Jake Kasden).Ben Stiller and Bill Pullman do quite well, but some more seasoned stars (picture Tom Cruise in the Stiller role and tell me that wouldn't work) could have elevated this very good film to greatness.
I consider Zero Effect and Rushmore as two of the best films I have seen in recent years, for similar reasons.