“Cozy” is probably not the first word that springs to mind when you think of a murder mystery movie. While the genre has been host to several efforts with an intentionally playful nature, from “Knives Out” to Netflix’s own “Murder Mystery” franchise, the “murder” part of the equation would, on the surface, at least, appear to be at odds with a comfort watch.
That’s not the case with “The Thursday Murder Club.” This new Netflix original is a crime-comedy adapted from Richard Osman’s best-selling novel of the same name, and while it does deal in death, the overwhelming vibe of the movie is charming and snug. I feared a degree of tonal whiplash, but the combination proves to be pleasantly effective.
However, that’s not to say “The Thursday Murder Club” doesn’t have its faults. There’s one key element that left me more than a little frustrated, but across its somewhat bloated two-hour runtime, I ultimately came to be extremely charmed by its cast of likable characters, each brought to life by British acting veterans, including Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan.
If you’re curious to meet this quartet of amateur sleuths, grab a cup of tea and a chunky slice of cake (sweet-toothed viewers will love the desserts on display here), and let’s dive into “The Thursday Murder Club” and fully unpack this flawed but still easy-to-like new Netflix movie.
What is ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ about?
Not content with spending their evenings playing bridge or backgammon, four residents of the Cooper’s Chase retirement village set up a rather different social club, one dedicated to investigating unsolved murders.
The eponymous club is comprised of Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren), a former spy, Ron Ritche (Pierce Brosnan), an ex-union leader, Ibrahim Arif (Ben Kingsley), an Egyptian psychiatrist, and the newest recruit, Joyce Meadowcoft (Celia Imrie), a retired nurse.
The club is initially just for fun, but when Cooper’s Chase is threatened with closure, and one of the site’s co-owners is found dead in suspicious circumstances, the Thursday Murder Club is on the case to both identify the killer and save their beloved retirement community.
Netflix's new original movie also stars David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Tom Ellis and Richard E. Grant.
This club is full of compelling characters
With such a strong cast list, it won’t come as a huge surprise when I say it’s the characters that really anchor “The Thursday Murder Club.” Each of the four core members gets a moment to shine and brings a different dynamic to the group. Though I would have enjoyed a little more inner-group conflict to bring a splash of melodrama to the mix.
The headliner and unequivocal star of the flick is Helen Mirren. Mirren has played some big roles in her illustrious career, and while Elizabeth Best is far from the most complex character she’s undertaken, from the drop, it's clear that Mirren is having a complete ball as the group’s de facto leader. Well, she is an ex-spy, so it makes sense she’d take charge of things.
Mirren has proved to have fantastic comedic chops several times already, and she brings them in spades here. A scene where she attempts to convince a panic-stricken police clerk that she was just the victim of an unprovoked robbery had me grinning like a big kid.
Brosnan, Kingsley and Imrie are also perfectly picked for their respective roles. David Tennant rocks up to play a hugely unlikeable business tycoon, and I’m always on board for the former “Doctor Who” actor to play a smarmy magnate; he does it so darn well. Credit also to Naomi Ackie for her small (but pleasant) role as a rookie police officer who the club feeds their findings after growing frustrated with the local police department’s failures.
Director Chris Columbus, most known for helming the first two “Home Alone” movies and the first two entries in the “Harry Potter” series, pairs up his charming cast with a cozy atmosphere that feels decidedly British (or at least, British in the Hollywood sense). Rarely in murder mystery movies are grisly deaths discussed while the characters lounge in plush armchairs, a cup of tea in one hand and a humongous slab of cake in the other.
I want more mystery in my murder mystery movies
While I very much enjoyed the “Club” aspect of “The Thursday Murder Club”, unfortunately, it’s the actual murder part that’s less engaging.
The added stakes of the Cooper’s Chase community being at risk of closure do help to make the whole thing personal for the quartet, but the investigation into Tony Curran’s (Geoff Bell) murder is disappointingly pedestrian. The final resolution comes less as a surprise and more as an inevitability. Rather quickly, there’s only one logical conclusion to the culprit.
At least there are no leaps in logic, or characters acting out of turn, but I never felt the mystery get its hooks into me. I was more compelled to see how Ron would resolve his simmering conflict with his estranged son, Jason (Ellis), which should never be the case in a movie where investigating a murder is supposed to be the driving force keeping you interested.
If you’re hoping for a twisting mystery akin to Netflix’s excellent “Glass Onion”, you might want to readjust your expectations. There’s no clever playing with perspective, or even much in the way of unexpected reveals (I suspect anybody even vaguely familiar with the genre will clock the killer quickly). Instead, this is a murder mystery at its most straightforward.
‘The Thursday Murder Club’ is still worthy of your Netflix watchlist
“The Thursday Murder Club” is worth watching purely for its cast of lovely seniors. Even if the mystery element fails to impress, across its two-hour runtime (which probably could, and maybe should have, been trimmed a bit closer to 100 minutes), you find yourself enamoured with its central foursome and the group of equally well-realised characters around them.
Osman has written several sequel novels, including a new “Murder Club” mystery slated for publication later this year, so I’m hoping that a sequel could be on the way. While I’m not sure “The Thursday Murder Club” will ever reach the levels of “Knives Out” (itself getting a third sequel, “Wake Up Dead Man” in December), with a more compelling investigation at its core, and the same lovable cast, I would certainly welcome a second meeting with this club.
Watch "The Thursday Murder Club" on Netflix now
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