'The Thursday Murder Club' review: British whodunit delivers one boring mystery
- Nate Adams
- 3 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Courtesy of Netflix
As I sat and watched “The Thursday Murder Club,” directed by family-film stalwart Chris Columbus and starring such heavyweights as Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie, I kept thinking about how streaming has robbed us of an era when big movies with big stars actually looked like movies. Call it nostalgia, call it common sense, or blame it on the endless churn of content, but for long stretches of this film I was convinced it wasn’t a real movie at all. How can you put this many A-listers in a murder mystery and still fail to deliver anything even remotely engaging?
Everyone loves a stylish whodunit. Kenneth Branagh breathed new life into Agatha Christie, and Netflix scored a hit with “Glass Onion.” But Columbus, best known for “Home Alone” and the first two “Harry Potter” films, brings an oddball, almost childlike sensibility to a story clearly meant for adults. It’s a tonal clash that gives the film a plasticky digital sheen it never shakes off. Fans of Richard Osman’s popular novel might find some comfort food entertainment here, but the end result is another forgettable streaming flick aimed squarely at the AARP crowd.
The story follows retirees Elizabeth (Mirren), Ron (Brosnan), and Ibrahim (Kingsley) at the sprawling Coopers Chase retirement home, which offers art classes, giant apartments, and, for some reason, llamas. Every Thursday this cheerful brigade gathers to solve cold case murders with resources that would make Buckingham Palace jealous.
Their latest recruit is Joyce (Imrie), a former nurse whose medical know-how proves useful just as trouble lands on their doorstep. When news breaks that the smarmy co-owner of Coopers Chase (a gleefully silly David Tennant) is planning to evict tenants and redevelop the property into luxury flats, someone turns up dead, and the Thursday Murder Club leaps into action.
What follows is a slog of drawn-out reaction shots, endless monologues, and plot twists so convenient they insult the audience’s intelligence. One major reveal hinges on a character who happens to always be carrying a tape recorder.
Naomi Ackie, who has been everywhere lately and I’m not mad about it, shows up as a local cop saddled with a bumbling partner (Daniel Mays), and Richard E. Grant all but steals the movie in a small role I won’t spoil.
The central cast is game, but the script by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote paints everyone in broad strokes and leans on lazy contrivances. And despite the lavish setting of Coopers Chase, the film never once takes advantage of its location. For a murder mystery set in a mansion-like retirement community, it’s shocking how flat and uninspired the scenery looks.
“The Thursday Murder Club” isn’t unwatchable, but it is uninspired. For a film that should be playful, sharp, and full of twists, it ends up feeling like an overlong TV pilot that forgot to be fun. If you’re looking for a mystery with actual bite and a cast that knows how to work their age to their advantage, skip this one and go with “Only Murders in the Building” instead.
Grade: C-
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB streams on Netflix Thursday, August 28th.