Review: 'Zero Effect' null and void of interest

February 11, 1998
Web posted at: 7:55 p.m. EST (0055 GMT)

From Reviewer Paul Tatara

(CNN) -- On the way into the theater to see "Zero Effect," a slow-moving whodunit comedy directed by Jake Kasdan, I was given a little form that I was supposed to fill out after the show ended.

"Zero Effect" movie clip
	2.1M/27 sec./240x180 1M/27 sec./160x120 QuickTime movie

It consisted of multiple-choice marketing stuff -- name, rank, and serial number -- but one question in particular stood out. Under "Which of the following words or phrases best describe the movie you just saw," there was a list of 30 or so choices (some of them quite derogatory), but the one that headed column 2 was obviously where the studio hoped to find some check marks -- "hip/contemporary."

Self-conscious hipness is one of the greater annoyances in American society, running a close second to "Forrest Gump"-style proud stupidity.

It's the reason you're forever seeing pictures of gorgeous models smoking cigars while sporting expressions which suggest that sucking on a rolled-up tobacco leaf is the key to inner peace.

The goal of the self-consciously hip filmmaker is to get knowing chuckles from the chosen few, the audience members who are attuned to the joke and can laugh while everybody else sits there wondering what the big deal is.

There were people laughing every now and then while I watched "Zero Effect," but the movie is so self-satisfied and purposefully distant I had a hard time caring what happened next.

It certainly is hip, but I'm convinced that the coolest thing about hip people is that they seldom contemplate their hipness. Everything about "Zero Effect," from the snail-paced anti-jokes to the college radio soundtrack is belabored and, finally, tedious.

I was rooting for it, though. Honest I was.

Bill Pullman plays Daryl Zero, a brilliant private detective whose powers of deductive reasoning may help him solve such mind-benders as "The Case of the Guy Who Lied About His Age," but they aren't much help in allowing him to function as a normal human being.

Zero is a first-class nut case. We're told by his often-confused right-hand man, lawyer Steve Arlo (played by Ben Stiller), that Zero, when he's not on the job, has no social skills, no social life, and is inept and debilitated by undue paranoia. He also fancies himself a blues singer (Pullman is very funny while singing one of Zero's awful compositions.)

The operative word is quirky, but Kasdan is so concerned with Zero's quirks, he never allows for any character development. He's a character in the same sense that some of the goofballs on the street in New York are characters, not in the sense that he's a multi-dimensional person whom you'd like to follow through a movie.

Pullman is quite amusing at times, but Zero is such an obvious construct that nothing he ever says or does carries any weight. He's crazy and nutty and silly, then you cut to Stiller, who isn't allowed to do much of anything, and then you're back with Pullman being crazy, nutty, and silly.

I happen to think that Stiller has one of the most dexterous comic minds of his generation. His short-lived TV show is the great lost classic of the '90s. It was consistently risky, and the acting (by Stiller and the entire ensemble) was smart and effective.

Why, then, is he having such difficulty getting his movie career rolling? "Reality Bites" (which he also directed) is a lot funnier than "Zero Effect," but suffers from the same self-satisfied posturing.

Surely he was able to tell that "Zero's story, in which the detective attempts to track down the lost safe deposit box key of a rich businessman (Ryan O'Neal), is really a near-plotless excuse to get Pullman into "situations" and then let Stiller scratch his head and kvetch over how they're going to get out of them.

It's the same joke over and over again, with Zero using his astounding powers of observation to figure out things that most of us wouldn't think of in a million years. For instance, he determines that one woman he meets is a paramedic because of how she smells and the way her hair looks.

The movie isn't as clever as it thinks it is. The deck is stacked in Pullman's favor; you know he'll never make a mistake, and there's hardly any fear of something bad happening if he stumbles. It's also sluggish and dull, and that's not hip. Baby.

"Zero Effect" contains some bad language and a brief sexual scene. Stiller's suits are great, if that helps. Rated R. 120 minutes.

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