Review: 'The Thursday Murder Club'
The all-star cast serves up a delightful treat, but the plot feels like a cake with far too many ingredients—messy and running all over the place
“We’re not getting any younger.” It’s a phrase often uttered with a mix of passion and gallows humor when we talk about something we desperately want to do. It speaks to our mortality, the limited time we have in this world, and the desire to make the most of it.
Four of the residents of the Cooper’s Chase retirement village in England certainly take this philosophy to heart, albeit in a rather extreme fashion. While their neighbors are content with knitting, gentle water aerobics, painting, or tending to emotional support llamas, these four geriatric eccentrics have a more thrilling passion: investigating unsolved murders. They meet every week for what they call “The Thursday Murder Club.”
The English television personality and author Richard Osman took this concept and turned it into a successful and critically acclaimed novel series. Beginning in 2020 with The Thursday Murder Club, it was followed by the sequels The Man Who Died Twice (2021), The Bullet That Missed (2022), and The Last Devil to Die (2023). The fifth book in the series, The Impossible Fortune, is scheduled for release in September 2025.
In 2020, Steven Spielberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, bought the film rights to the novel series and began developing the first film. While it would take years before production actually began, with casting rumors floating around involving Viola Davis, Meryl Streep, and others, it wasn’t until 2025 that we would get a Netflix adaptation starring a whole slew of veteran actors. Here, Chris Columbus directs a cast led by Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie, with a supporting cast that includes David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd Hughes, and Richard E. Grant — a veritable who's who of British talent!
So let’s take a trip over to the old folks' home at Cooper’s Chase and meet our sleuths. Helen Mirren plays Elizabeth Best, a former spy and the group's de facto leader. Cunning and formidable with a mysterious past, she lives at the retirement village for her beloved husband, Stephen (Jonathan Pryce), who suffers from dementia.
Pierce Brosnan plays Ron Ritchie, a former firebrand trade union leader who is still fighting the good fight, albeit on a smaller scale. Ron is strong, charming, and fiercely loyal. His son, Jason (played by Tom Ellis), is a former professional boxer turned television personality, a career path his father doesn't quite understand or approve of.
Then there is Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim Arif, a retired psychiatrist. He is gentle, meticulous, and brilliant, if a bit neurotic and anxious. As the most intellectually cautious of the group, his analytical mind and strong moral compass are crucial in getting to the bottom of their cases.
Last, but certainly not least, is Celia Imrie as Joyce Meadowcroft. This former nurse is unfazed by any and all descriptions or depictions of gruesome injuries the group might encounter. She brings a kind, optimistic, and often deceptively sharp perspective to the unfolding events. And yes, she always brings an oversized cake to any occasion.
Together, they form “The Thursday Murder Club,” digging up cold cases in an effort to solve them. But their hobby gets an upgrade when a very real, and very, very current murder happens right on their doorstep. When one of the owners of Cooper's Chase is killed, his shady and unscrupulous business partner, Ian Ventham (David Tennant), is left as the apparent sole owner. This sets the club into action, not just to solve the case, but to save their home.
These events set the group on an investigation that delves not just into the murder of their former landlord, but also into the backgrounds of many residents of Cooper’s Chase. If you get a nagging feeling that this sounds a bit like the brilliant series Only Murders in the Building, you’d be half-right, as it plays on many of the same themes.
But is it good? When I started watching the film, it seemed like I was in for a good time. Geriatric self-irony? Check. Generational humor? Check. Old vs. young? Check. Witty dialogue? Check. Interesting characters? Check. And a terrific cast? Check, check!
However, around the halfway mark, the plot begins to lose its way. The narrative threads become tangled, resulting in a story that feels messy and unfocused. With too many characters and plot points, I found that the time between laughs and heartwarming moments grew longer as the film approached its two-hour runtime. Would this have worked better as a series? That was the feeling I was left with. That, and “Hmm, that was okay. I’ll probably forget it in a week.” That’s not something I’ve often said about any film starring one of these actors, much less all four.
The plot meanders through the apparent rivalry between the owners of Cooper’s Chase, tying in several inhabitants and an unrelated cold case in an effort to involve as many side characters as possible. On this twisting route, full of tea, biscuits, and murder boards, the film somehow loses sight of the charm, wit, and humor it started with. It feels as though writers Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, along with director Chris Columbus, have tried to cram a series' worth of a novel into a two-hour runtime, making the final product feel messy and rushed.
Still, The Thursday Murder Club is a film I would highly recommend. Not for the meandering plot, but for the chance to see this stellar cast in action, even if they are hampered by a somewhat poor execution.
The Thursday Murder Club premiers on Netflix on August 28.