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Given the writing, the movie actually has a lot of witty moments and quotable dialogue that no one is ever going to quote (“Fuck the whales”). Steve’s response to Zero about how to file a tax return is one of the highlights.

The film plays around with what one would expect from a detective story. As Zero works undercover pretending to be an accountant, he is invited by Gloria to her home to help file her tax returns. As he does this, she decides to take a shower. It’s the perfect opportunity for a gratuitously unnecessary sex scene, except it doesn’t happen! Kasdan puts the thought into motion, for even as Zero snoops around her house some sleazy saxophone music starts to play!

With further proof of going against the grain, Zero’s client Stark is the victim, but also most likely a murderer. Zero’s investigation leads him to try and solve a 25-year-old murder case. What’s also unusual is that despite the crimes, lessons are certainly learnt, though no one faces any consequences. There’s also no climatic action shootout or fisticuffs; it’s actually rather low when it comes to the body count. The final turning point at a planetarium (of all places) actually says more about the characters, rather than providing the audience with some excitable cheap thrills.

With a budget of $5 million, Sony Columbia Pictures distributed Zero Effect, starting out on a limited release. It opened on just 100 screens in January 1998 and managed to score $434,000 on its opening weekend, at a time when Titanic was still leading the box office. With a slight increase in the screen count, the film made $450,000 on its second weekend. For whatever reason, there was no further expansion and after five weeks it scraped just over the $2 million mark. Zero Effect simply came and went.

So what happened? The trailer did an okay job of selling humor but didn’t really put across much of a story. Official movie websites were only just starting to emerge in those days, and Zero Effect’s official site (which astonishingly still exists), had hardly anything on it. Ultimately, modern day detective stories were finding their audiences with TV shows, meaning that big screen cases were (and often still are) unlikely to reach blockbuster status.

With this in mind, a pilot for a TV series prequel was filmed in 2002. Set to show Daryl’s former cases, with Alan Cumming as Daryl Zero, Kasdan was on board directing, with one Judd Apatow as executive producer. Unfortunately hardly anyone saw it since it wasn’t picked up. It would be nice if a special edition DVD/Blu Ray were released with the pilot as an extra feature, though this is likely to remain wishful thinking.

Interestingly the film brought together costume designer Kym Barrett and cinematographer Bill Pope, both of whom went to work on The Matrix the following year. Kasdan himself directed episodes of the TV series Freaks & Geeks before directing the comedies Orange Country to a modest profit, and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, which he co-wrote with Judd Apatow.

All the talent involved resulted in an unpredictably refreshing spin on what often passes for a detective story. However, Zero Effect joins neo-noirs Kill Me Again, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Brick, as criminally underrated films that deserved more, and tend to still go unnoticed today.

Written and Directed by – Jake Kasdan

Starring – Bill Pullman (Daryl Zero), Ben Stiller (Steve Arlo), Kim Dickens (Gloria Sullivan), Angela Featherstone (Jess), Ryan O’Neal (Gregory Stark), Hugh Ross (Bill)

Length – 116 minutes

Cert – 15 / R

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