REVIEW: The Thursday Murder Club (film)
Aug. 28th, 2025 09:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feather_ghyllThe Thursday Murder Club (2025) Rated: 12A
Directed by: Chris Columbus
Screenplay by: Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, based on the nove by: Richard Osman
Starring: Helen Mirren, Piers Brosnan, Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley
This is well made and entertaining, it features lots of big names in the British acting firmament, some things have been dropped or tweaked for the running time, and maybe some of the characters flattened, but that’s what you expect with adaptations. I saw it in the cinema – as I don’t have Netflix, I was glad to catch it in my local arthouse cinema. I believe it’s on a short, limited run in British cinemas, at least. It is worth it for the communal chuckles, because it’s a film that sets out to entertain, and then it remembers that it is about real murders, not cold cases, especially as one happens at the club’s posh retirement home.
As readers of the bestselling book will know, The Thursday Murder Club is made up of retirees living at Coopers Chase who look over cold cases involving a former member, now lying comatose in the hospice wing. New arrival and former nurse Joyce is invited to help by imperious Elizabeth, because the club needs medical know-how, but when one of the home’s co-owners is killed, the club have an open case to investigate, with the help of police officer Donna and, rather more unwillingly, her boss. But by the time another murder takes place, most of the retirees have become suspects. There’s a link to organised crime, family members are pulled in, can this team of amateurs crack it?
Helen Mirren was excellently cast as Elizabeth, as far as I was concerned. Piers Brosnan wasn’t Ron as I’d imagined him, and the other two were somewhere in between. Jonathan Pryce was canny casting as Elizabeth’s husband, while I think Richard E. Grant agreed to basically cameo to share a scene with Mirren. Naomi Ackie continues to burnish her CV as Donna, becoming Elizabeth’s protégé, while Daniel Mays was great as her spluttering boss, who is smart enough to know when he’s outsmarted. Tennant was maybe playing to type, but Harry Lloyd-Williams made for a soulful Bogdan (actual Poles might disagree, obviously), and I haven’t even mentioned everyone.
Joyce lost out by no longer being the narrator, although she was our entry point character, newly arriving at Coopers Chase, hoping to strike it out alone after losing her husband, while her high-flying daughter Joanna was too busy to spend much time with her. That added pathos to the extreme cake-making, and her efforts to make friends and what the club meant to her were universally relatable, much like going to a new school, starting a new job or moving to a new home at any point in life. Like all her peers, you got the sense that she’d been really, really good at her job. The film didn’t make as much of the fact that this was a place for well-off pensioners, although that was to be seen in the glorious building, and the fact that classes included archery and swimming in top-notch facilities. The fact that they could cheerfully have wine for lunch, or drink on the bus was part of the fun.
Mirren’s past roles as competent spies (most notably in RED) made her believable as driven Elizabeth, although it says a lot about the kind of film it is that when she dressed up as a vulnerable old lady for REASONS and looked a bit like the Queen (which Mirren so famously played), they couldn’t let it sit, it had to be telegraphed in neon lights, if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor. Brosnan had fun as the former trade unionist now getting up a protest to stop Coopers Chase from being sold from under their feet while investigating murders, and having some tensions in his generally loving relationship with his son Jason (Tom Ellis.) For most of the film, I thought Ron was flirting with Joyce (he loved her cake), although at the end, she was paired off with Ibrahim to share anecdotes about their deceased spouses. Elizabeth was softened by her relationships with Stephen - I had a niggle about how on one of his good days he put together all that Elizabeth had been saying about the case and worked out who was responsible for one of the deaths - and Pam, and indeed Bogdan. I thought the costume design was really smart, and I hope it does well. I have yet to read the next book in the series, but I am curious as to whether that will get adapted.
My review of the book is here.
Directed by: Chris Columbus
Screenplay by: Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, based on the nove by: Richard Osman
Starring: Helen Mirren, Piers Brosnan, Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley
This is well made and entertaining, it features lots of big names in the British acting firmament, some things have been dropped or tweaked for the running time, and maybe some of the characters flattened, but that’s what you expect with adaptations. I saw it in the cinema – as I don’t have Netflix, I was glad to catch it in my local arthouse cinema. I believe it’s on a short, limited run in British cinemas, at least. It is worth it for the communal chuckles, because it’s a film that sets out to entertain, and then it remembers that it is about real murders, not cold cases, especially as one happens at the club’s posh retirement home.
As readers of the bestselling book will know, The Thursday Murder Club is made up of retirees living at Coopers Chase who look over cold cases involving a former member, now lying comatose in the hospice wing. New arrival and former nurse Joyce is invited to help by imperious Elizabeth, because the club needs medical know-how, but when one of the home’s co-owners is killed, the club have an open case to investigate, with the help of police officer Donna and, rather more unwillingly, her boss. But by the time another murder takes place, most of the retirees have become suspects. There’s a link to organised crime, family members are pulled in, can this team of amateurs crack it?
Helen Mirren was excellently cast as Elizabeth, as far as I was concerned. Piers Brosnan wasn’t Ron as I’d imagined him, and the other two were somewhere in between. Jonathan Pryce was canny casting as Elizabeth’s husband, while I think Richard E. Grant agreed to basically cameo to share a scene with Mirren. Naomi Ackie continues to burnish her CV as Donna, becoming Elizabeth’s protégé, while Daniel Mays was great as her spluttering boss, who is smart enough to know when he’s outsmarted. Tennant was maybe playing to type, but Harry Lloyd-Williams made for a soulful Bogdan (actual Poles might disagree, obviously), and I haven’t even mentioned everyone.
Joyce lost out by no longer being the narrator, although she was our entry point character, newly arriving at Coopers Chase, hoping to strike it out alone after losing her husband, while her high-flying daughter Joanna was too busy to spend much time with her. That added pathos to the extreme cake-making, and her efforts to make friends and what the club meant to her were universally relatable, much like going to a new school, starting a new job or moving to a new home at any point in life. Like all her peers, you got the sense that she’d been really, really good at her job. The film didn’t make as much of the fact that this was a place for well-off pensioners, although that was to be seen in the glorious building, and the fact that classes included archery and swimming in top-notch facilities. The fact that they could cheerfully have wine for lunch, or drink on the bus was part of the fun.
Mirren’s past roles as competent spies (most notably in RED) made her believable as driven Elizabeth, although it says a lot about the kind of film it is that when she dressed up as a vulnerable old lady for REASONS and looked a bit like the Queen (which Mirren so famously played), they couldn’t let it sit, it had to be telegraphed in neon lights, if you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor. Brosnan had fun as the former trade unionist now getting up a protest to stop Coopers Chase from being sold from under their feet while investigating murders, and having some tensions in his generally loving relationship with his son Jason (Tom Ellis.) For most of the film, I thought Ron was flirting with Joyce (he loved her cake), although at the end, she was paired off with Ibrahim to share anecdotes about their deceased spouses. Elizabeth was softened by her relationships with Stephen - I had a niggle about how on one of his good days he put together all that Elizabeth had been saying about the case and worked out who was responsible for one of the deaths - and Pam, and indeed Bogdan. I thought the costume design was really smart, and I hope it does well. I have yet to read the next book in the series, but I am curious as to whether that will get adapted.
My review of the book is here.
