The film adaptation of Richard Osman’s 2020 bestseller The Thursday Murder Club, directed by Chris Columbus and starring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie, follows a group of retirees in a luxurious retirement home
A still from The Thursday Murder Club
Film: The Thursday Murder Club
Cast: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays
Director: Chris Columbus
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 118 min
Richard Osman’s 2020 bestseller forms the basis for this film adapted by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, directed and produced by Chris Columbus, about a quartet of septuagenarians living in a retirement home, solving cold murder cases for fun. The novel had three sequels, which are also set to be adapted to film.
These elderly members played by Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie, of the “Thursday Murder Club” residing in Cooper’s Chase, a luxurious retirement community with a hospice wing, situated in a former convent, were having fun until people start getting murdered for real, close to home.
The Club was started by D.I. Penny Gray, a retired police officer who now lies in a coma. Elizabeth (Mirren) who hints at being in the MI6, being Penny’s good friend, is the one keeping the club going. Ron (Brosnan) a former trade unionist, Ibrahim (Kingsley), a former psychiatrist, and Joyce (Imrie), a nurse and newcomer to the club, are the others in the team. Their investigation of a cold case from 1973 gets interrupted by the murder of Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), the owner of the retirement home. Ian Ventham (Tennant), the co-owner is moving quickly with his plan to evict the residents of Cooper’s Chase, in the meantime. Elizabeth, in a voice-over by Mirren, walks us through the current case.
Every week these retirees solve cold cases in the jigsaw room a kind of past time that lends a certain thrill to their otherwise humdrum, unexciting lives. Donna De Freitas (Ackie), a PI, is the cop aiding the team in their current investigation.
There are plenty of plot twists, more murders and multiple red herrings. The plot has a mob connection, a criminal presumed dead, rises and a string of other suspects roam the retirement community. This film is not structured as a spoof. The tone of the film is not consistently happening and there are no thrills really to speak of. But seeing these septuagenarians doggedly going about solving the crime itself makes it interesting by half. The idea that retirees can get more mentally and physically active despite their old age, is a winning one. The plot is suspenseful and amusing. The narrative plays out engagingly despite the half-baked characters inhabiting this whodunit. The film is has stock tropes, yet it is fairly entertaining.
It’s heartening to see a retirement home with big, comfortable apartments and luxuriant green settings. Seems like a dream setting that everyone crossing sixty would yearn for. James Merifield’s production design and Don Burgess’ richly endowed cinematography makes it all the more inviting.
Fortunately, an esteemed ensemble cast effortlessly conveys a sense of charming curiosity that makes us eager to go along for the ride, even if the central mystery lacks consistent suspense and intrigue.
Henry Lloyd-Hughes who plays Polish immigrant handyman Bogdan Jankowski, Pryce as Elizabeth’s husband who is slowly succumbing to dementia, and Jason Ritchie as Tom, Ron’s ex-boxer son, come to notice with their performances.
It’s the star power lead by Mirren and Brosnan that makes this murder mystery gravitating. The borderline slapstick and running gags make it amusing. This film is meant for people who love watching Murder she wrote, Knives Out and the like. Cozy, bittersweet, affecting sentimentality notwithstanding, this film is a breezy caper comedy with fiesty seniors indulging their true-crime obsession.
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