Daily Dialogue — October 8, 2011
INT. STARK’S OFFICE — DAY
ARLO: I’m his sole representative, he’s my only employer and as such I have full authorization to speak on his behalf on all his business. I have with me a signed letter to that effect. He doesn’t negotiate his fee. He works at a flat rate. Under some unusual circumstances he’ll work pro bono. Never in between.
STARK: I suppose I don’t qualify for the latter category.
ARLO: I haven’t heard your proposal yet.
STARK: I have a feeling that mine is not a charity case.
ARLO: Most aren’t.
STARK: Mr. Arlo, you realize this is all…very strange. I mean, nobody in your field asks the kind of money your employer does and nobody communicates via a messenger. It’s all very unusual.
ARLO: Let me tell you about the case of the man with the mismatched shoelaces. Years ago, when I first came into his employ he was contracted to find a man. I can’t give much detail but believe me, if this man had not been located our country’s good diplomacy with a certain economic superpower might have a different face today. Federal, state, local authorities all over the world searched for a face whose significance they couldn’t fathom. He’d vanished without a trace.
Stark is hanging on every word, but trying not to show it.
ARLO: (CONT’D) On the eigth morning, a non-political third party contacted me with an unrelated private agenda. My employer had never heard of this missing man, knew nothing about him. After just one hour of desk work, just an hour after accepting the case, he picked up the telephone and placed a call. Guess who answered the phone.
STARK: The missing man.
ARLO: The man with the mismatched shoelaces. Without ever leaving the house.
INT. BAR — NIGHT As [Arlo] talks to someone just off-screen he occasionally massages the headache his speech is giving him.
ARLO: I’m telling you, he never even leaves the house, okay? I mean, he’s like some kind of recluse. A complete freak. No social life. In fact, no social skills. Fucking strange. When he works — the smoothest operator you’ve seen. Brave, slick, cunning…do anything. Soon as he gets off work it’s all gone. Afraid to go to the dry cleaners. Literally. Too uncomfortable in his own skin to go out and eat. Tactless and inept. Rude too. Just an asshole.
— Arlo (Ben Stiller), Stark (Ryan O’Neill), Zero Effect (1998), written by Jake Kasdan
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is great exposition, suggested by Teddy Pasternak. Zero Effect suggested by Saint McSaint.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Why do you think this is great exposition?
Comment Archive