The Thursday Murder Club (2025) - 7/10

I’m assuming that the majority of viewers will have read the book(s) and will have loved them, so The Thursday Murder Club: The Movie as no one is calling it, has a lot to live up to. Add in a star studded ensemble cast to raise expectations higher and this already has quite a hill to climb. We’re introduced to the delightfully British, Cooper Chase retirement home. A lavish place, where Joyce (Celia Imrie) has just moved in and discovered fellow residents Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), Ron (Pierce Brosnan) and Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley) also known as the aforementioned club. On the surface, they’re a bunch of OAPs killing time, looking for killers in cold cases. However, they’re more than meets the eye. Whilst they’re doing sudoku puzzles and making cakes. There’s a rumour going round that their home is in danger. The two co-owners, Ventman (David Tennent) and Tony (Geoff Bell) are in a dispute as whether to keep the retirement home or kick out the old folks and turn it in luxury flats… which to be fair it already is. If I ever wind up in a retirement home, please let it be like this. Everyone’s very prim and proper, as in the book, where it works. Here though it does feel a bit heavy handed. Everyone’s laying it on very thick. No more so than Mirren, whose Elizabeth is the sole driving force, again a slight shift from the book. She lives with her husband Stephen (Jonathan Pryce) who struggling with dementia, in the only subplot that makes any attempt at realism. This tale is pure escapism though and as everyone is slowly introduced, including Donna (Naomi Ackie), the local bobby and her boss Chris (Daniel Mays), the crime solving team clicks into place. Just in time too, as the cold case is put on hold for a live one. There’s been a murder! It’s all very delightful, playfully funny, with likeable characters and lots of quintessentially twee fun. Is it a gripping thriller… no. The pace is a touch too slow and there is zero grit, but that’s by design. Like the books, it’s accessible, entertaining, like a Sunday night whodunit, but it’s not really for the viewer to solve. This doesn’t work that way, it’s much more linear, showing only what’s needed to serve the story. There’s little need to guess or follow any threads, the next scene will show you. It holds your hand, doesn’t get overly complicated, but doesn’t treat its viewer like an idiot either. It just asks that you sit back and enjoy it. If you’ve not read the book, you may wonder if that’s an issue watching this. It’s not, but make no mistake the book is much stronger. That’s often the case. A book can hide more in its pages, paint a more fluid narrative. Film doesn’t have that luxury and this does suffer a little in comparison. The narrative is strong though as the gang try to solve the murder and save their home, the two being conveniently linked and the further into the rabbit hole we go, the better it gets and the more I like it. The casting on the surface seems caricatured but truthfully it’s marvellous. There’s no weak link. It’s shifts up through the gears, but I can see why some reviewers have been a bit scathing. It’s nice, it’s neat. Smooth and schmaltzy, perhaps not everyone’s cup of tea. Does it meet expectations. No, not quite, but it’s still worth watching and I hope they make more. There’s another few books to play with at the time of this release and with any luck, many more in the future.

7/10