Matthew Rhys’s Frown Lights Up Towards Zero

How does one update an Agatha Christie story? Kenneth Branagh has his increasingly elaborate Poirot mustache. Rian Johnson uses 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 proper presentation into an adaptation that’s looser and sillier than it has any right to be: Matthew Rhys, professional grump. This man should always be frowning, and Towards Zero thankfully understands that. Remember how Rhys, as Philip Jennings on The Americans, yelled at Paige for respecting Jesus but not her parents? And lost his temper with deceitful witnesses on the canceled-too-soon Perry Mason? That’s Rhys’s mode as Inspector Leach in Towards Zero, and he’s giving a masterclass in how charismatic a great actor doing hungover exhaustion and irritated scorn can be.

A BBC adaptation of Christie’s 1944 novel whose three episodes are getting a Stateside rollout on Britbox April 16, 17, and 18, Towards Zero has all the typical components of a Christie mystery. (For book readers demanding faithfulness, be aware: There are significant changes here.) Set in 1936, Towards Zero takes place at the clifftop estate Gull’s Point, familial home of Lady Tressilian (Anjelica Huston) and her nephew, tennis star Nevile Strange (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). The Saltcreek village is remote and the water surrounding it unpredictable, full of riptides and strange currents; years before, Lady Tressilian watched from her window as her husband’s ship went down, and she hasn’t left her bedroom since. When Nevile writes to tell her that he’s visiting, she’s excited — until she learns that Nevile plans to arrive with both his new wife, Kay Elliot (Mimi Keene), and his first wife, Audrey (Ella Lily Hyland), whom he freshly divorced. The Stranges’ separation was tabloid fodder, and Lady Tressilian is scandalized by Nevile bringing that drama to Gull’s Point. What she’s unaware of is that another surprise guest is making his way toward the mansion, too. Thomas Royde (Jack Farthing), a childhood peer of Nevile’s, has his own grudge against the family and has been secretly trading letters for months with Lady Tressilian’s companion Mary (Anjana Vasan). When they all converge at Gull’s Point and people start dying, nearly everyone has a motive for violence. Left to sort out what happened and why are Lady Tressilian’s lawyer, Mr. Treves (Clarke Peters); his teen ward, the observant and sticky-fingered Sylvia (Grace Doherty); and local Inspector Leach (Rhys).

Everyone in this cast is doing what’s expected from them, and it makes for a pretty by-the-numbers adaptation that relies on a lot of suspicious looks to build tension between 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 period outfits as director Sam Yates zooms in on their inscrutable faces. You’d think you were watching The White Lotus, with how often Towards Zero cuts to overhead shots of choppy waters as a way to convey danger! All of that means the miniseries is familiarly digestible, but it also feels a little stale — until Rhys shuffles into Gull’s Point, his body slumped under a trench coat, his mood insolent, his performance a jolt of energy.

In Christie’s original novel, Inspector Leach is out of his depth at Gull’s Point and turns to his uncle, the experienced Superintendent Battle, for help on the case. (Battle is a Christie regular who appeared in four other of her books.) Towards Zero 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 investigating the same boring crimes in the same small village, making house calls to haughty aristocrats like Lady Tressilian, who demands he shut down a 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 shake up the solemn proceedings with disdain toward the suspects that plays to the actor’s strengths and enlivens the series overall.

A brief collection of hilarious Leach moments: His eyes practically roll out of his head as Lady Tressilian predictably complains about the changing times; he squints while watching Nevile flirt with Audrey and ignore Kay; he glowers when Kay pivots herself into another man’s arms. Everyone here is being so damn polite, but Leach can’t stand all the artifice. When Mr. Treves gives a self-important speech about every murder beginning with a “point zero,” Leach’s counter is a snide “We call that motive,” as if part of his job is putting Mr. Treves in his place. If Rhys can punctuate a line with a sneer and undermine the series’s proper tone with his depiction of a character who couldn’t care less about maintaining appearances, he’s going to do it, and the most consistent joy of Towards Zero is watching Rhys go big while everyone else has to be constrained. He zhuzhes up line readings with pointed pauses, like “There’s no law against … pleasure,” he slams back drinks and yells “Fuck!” before lighting a cigarette, he whacks a tennis ball against a wall to get his aggression out. No matter that Leach isn’t well-coordinated. In Towards Zero, Rhys knows exactly what he’s doing.