Zero Effect

This movie seemed to fall flat in many places. It opened slow and never really picked up a lot of steam. That being said, the story is engaging and very well-written. The dialogue, though...I thought the dialogue was a little poor. Jake Kasdan might be better served finding a screen writing partner to jazz up the dialogue. Maybe I'm a little spoiled by Monk (which I realize came later), but I didn't find the main character all that endearing. Mostly his traits were just annoying and not fully conceived--for instance the weird scene with him playing the guitar...which never comes up again. Why add in that particular moment unless it's going to play a part later on? The camera-work was excellent, with lots of long steady-cam shots. One place where I thought the film shone was in its use of music. I usually don't even notice the soundtrack, but on this one it really stood out as being well-selected. 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