Matthew rhys Jolts Christie’s ‘Zero Towards’ to Life – ryan

BRITBOX’S MINISERIES ADAPTATION OF AGATHA Christie’s Zero towards is familiarly Digestible, but Also a Little Stale – UNIL RHYS’S Inspector Leach Shuffles into Gull’s Point.
Photo: BRITBOX

How one update an Agatha Christie Story? Kenneth Branagh Has HIS INCREASSINGLY ELABORATE POIROT MUSTOCHE. Rian Johnson Use HIS Christie Pastiche to Swipe at the Trump-Coded Megarich. And now Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero Has a Secret Weapon That Shakes It Out of Its Very Staid, Very Propper Presentation Into an Adaptation that Looser and Sillier than it has right to be: Matthew rhys, Professional Grump. This man should Always be Frowning, and Zero towards Thankfully understands that. Remember How Rhys, As Philip Jennings On The American, yelled at Paige for Respecting Jesus But Not Her Parents? And lost his temperature with Deceitful Witnesses on the Canceled-toiooon Perry mason? That’s rhys’s mode as inspector leach in Zero towardsand he’s giving a masterclass in how Charismatic a great actor doing hungover exhrassation and irritated scorn can be.

A BBC Adaptation of Christie’s 1944 Novel Whose Three Episodes Are Getting A Statside Rolout on BritBox April 16, 17, and 18, Zero towards Has all the typical components of a Christie Mystery. (For Book Readers Demanding Faithfulness, Be Aware: There are Significant Changes here.) Set in 1936, Zero towards Takes Place at the Clifftop Estate Gull’s Point, Familial Home of Lady Tresilian (Anjelica Huston and Her Nephew, Tennis Star Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). The Saltcreek Village is Remote and the Water Surrounding It Unredictable, Full of Riptides and Strange Curents; Years before, Lady tresseilian watched from her worry as her Husband’s Ship Down, and she hasn’t left her bedroom Since. When Nevile Writes to TELL HERE VISITING, SHE’S EXCITED – UNIL SHE LEARNS THAT PLANS TO ARRIVE WITH BOTH HIS NEW WIFE, Kay Elliot (Mimi Keene) and His first Wife, Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland), WHOM he frehly divorced. The Stranges’ Separation was tabloid fodder, and lady tresilian is scandalized by nevile tearing that drama to gull’s point. What she’s unaware of is that anyway surprise guest is Making his way toward the mansion, too. Thomas Royde (Jack Farering), A Childhood Peer of Nevile, Has His Own Grudge Against The Family and Has Been Secretly Trading Letters for Months with Lady Tlessilian’s Companion Mary (Anjana Vasan). Be they all converge at Gull’s Point and People Start Dying, Nearly Everyone has a motif for violence. Left to Sort Out What Happened and WHY ARE LADY TRESSILIAN’S LAWYER, Mr. Three (Clarke Peters); His Teen Ward, The Observant and Sticky-Fingered Sylvia (Grace Dohety); and Local Inspector Leach (Rhys).

Everyone in this Cast is doing what’s expensive from saying, and it makes for a Pretty by-the-student adaptation that relies on a lot of susspicious looks to build tension the different generations. Peters Adds Gravitas and Huston Contempt to Rachel Bennette’s Posh Dialogue. Jackson-Cohen, Keene, and Hyland look glamorous in their ’30s periodfits as director sam yates zooms in on their inscrutable faces. You’d Think You Were Watching The White Lotuswith how Often Zero towards Cuts to overhead Shots of Choppy Waters As a Way to Convey Danger! All of that means the miniries is familiarly digestible, but it also feso a little stale – unil rhys shuffles into Gull’s Point, His Body Slumped Under A Tarnch Coat, His Mood Insolent, His Jolt of Energy.

In Christie’s Original Novel, Inspector Leach is out of his depth at gull’s point and tourns to his uncle, the experiences of superintendent battle, for help on the case. (Battle is a Christie Regular Who Appeared in Four Other of Her Books.) Zero towards Has Greater Faith in Rhys, and Instead of Incorporating Battle, Allows Leach to Drive the Action Forward in the Miniseries’s Second and Third Episodes. Here, Leach isn’t unqualified, he’s stuck – not just in the trauma of surviving World War I, but also in the monotony of investigation the same boring in the same small village, MAKING HOUGHTY ARISTOCRATS LIKE LADY TRESSSIILAN, WHO DO Trendy Hotel in Saltcreek that she’s nicknamed “Gomorrah.” The Murders That Sweep Through Gull’s Point, and the Killer’s Wiliness Under Leach’s Nose, Rouse the Inspector Out of His Tedium, Allowing Rhys to Solemn Processes with DisPETRS THAT PLAS TO THE ACTOR’S ACTHOR’S AND ENLIVES.

A brief collication of hilarious leach moments: Hisyes practically roll out of his heads as lady tresilian predictablely Complains About the Changing Times; He Squints while Watching Nevile Flirt with Audrey and Ignore Kay; He glowers when kay pivots Herself ino another Man’s weapon. Everyone is being so damn polite, but leach can’t stand all the artifact. When Mr. TRESS GIVES A SELF-IMPORTANT SPEECH ABOUT EVERY MURDER BEGINNING WITH A “POINT ZERO,” Leach’s counter is a snide “we call that motifs,” as if part of His jab is Putting Mr. Three in his place. If Rhys Can Punctuate a Line With A Sneer and Undermine the Series’ Proper with His Demption of a Character Who Couldn’t Care ABOUT MAINTAINING Appeaning, He’s Going to Do It, and the Most Consisttent Joy of Zero towards is watching rhys Go Big while Everyone Else Has to Be Constrained. He juzhes up line readings with pointed pauses, like “there’s no Law Against … Pleasure,” He Slame Back Drinks and Yells “Fuck!” Before Lighting a cigarette, he whats a tennis ball against a wall to get his aggression out. No Matter That Leach isn’t Well-Coordrated. In Zero towardsRhys knows exactly what he’s doing.