"Towards Zero" is another entry into the controversial Geraldine McEwan Miss Marple series, known for its great production values and rewriting of Agatha Christie. This Christie story is intact except for the addition of Miss Marple. It's quite a good plot, too, with top actors.
Miss Marple visits a friend from school, Camilla Tressilian (Eileen Atkins), while staying at a nearby hotel, and Lady Camilla has a few people who are also visiting, and it's a bit uncomfortable. There's her nephew, Neville Strange (Greg Wise), a tennis star, with his new wife Kay (Zoe Tapper) and his former wife, Audrey. Normally they don't visit at the same time, but Neville ran into Audrey (Saffron Burrows) and she seemed fine about it, so he and Kay are going to visit his aunt now and taking another trip at a time when they would normally visit her. However, Kay is very bothered by Audrey's presence and Neville's attention to her. Also on hand is Freddie Treves (Tom Baker), a retired attorney, a male friend of Kay's, and a childhood friend of Audrey's; she was engaged to his brother, who was killed in an auto accident.
One night as the group is sitting around drinking, Freddie tells the story of a child who accidentally killed another child with a bow and arrow -- except that it wasn't an accident, but murder. He said he would always recognize this child, even as an adult, because of a physical abnormality. When he gets back to his hotel, there's a sign on the elevator stating it is out of order, meaning he must take the stairs. The next day, he's found dead of an apparent heart attack.
A while later, the hostess herself is found dead.
It's apparent to Miss Marple that Freddie's announcement set the wheels in motion for his own murder, but who killed Lady Tressilian, and are the murders connected? The police have their murderer, they think, but Marple has doubts.
This is a very good movie, with Marple replacing another recurring character in some Christie books, Superintendent Battle. The story is all the more interesting because several people in the group have minor physical deformities.
My only complaint is that Greg Wise, who plays the tennis star who just lost at Wimbledon, was 41 at the time of the filming -- a little old to still be playing championship tennis, if one remembers the fuss made over Jimmy Connors playing the U.S. Open at 39.
Miss Marple visits a friend from school, Camilla Tressilian (Eileen Atkins), while staying at a nearby hotel, and Lady Camilla has a few people who are also visiting, and it's a bit uncomfortable. There's her nephew, Neville Strange (Greg Wise), a tennis star, with his new wife Kay (Zoe Tapper) and his former wife, Audrey. Normally they don't visit at the same time, but Neville ran into Audrey (Saffron Burrows) and she seemed fine about it, so he and Kay are going to visit his aunt now and taking another trip at a time when they would normally visit her. However, Kay is very bothered by Audrey's presence and Neville's attention to her. Also on hand is Freddie Treves (Tom Baker), a retired attorney, a male friend of Kay's, and a childhood friend of Audrey's; she was engaged to his brother, who was killed in an auto accident.
One night as the group is sitting around drinking, Freddie tells the story of a child who accidentally killed another child with a bow and arrow -- except that it wasn't an accident, but murder. He said he would always recognize this child, even as an adult, because of a physical abnormality. When he gets back to his hotel, there's a sign on the elevator stating it is out of order, meaning he must take the stairs. The next day, he's found dead of an apparent heart attack.
A while later, the hostess herself is found dead.
It's apparent to Miss Marple that Freddie's announcement set the wheels in motion for his own murder, but who killed Lady Tressilian, and are the murders connected? The police have their murderer, they think, but Marple has doubts.
This is a very good movie, with Marple replacing another recurring character in some Christie books, Superintendent Battle. The story is all the more interesting because several people in the group have minor physical deformities.
My only complaint is that Greg Wise, who plays the tennis star who just lost at Wimbledon, was 41 at the time of the filming -- a little old to still be playing championship tennis, if one remembers the fuss made over Jimmy Connors playing the U.S. Open at 39.