The Thursday Murder Club - Whodunit Movie Based on Popular Novel

I have been quite looking forward to this movie ever since I found out about it in various websites. As fans of whodunit genre and looking at the well known cast, obviously this one made me feel excited. So once it was made available last Thursday (I think Netflix purposely released it on that day), I immediately watch it. All right then, let's dive into it.

Brief Story Line

In the Coopers Chase retirement home, former union leader Ron Ritchie (Pierce Brosnan - Fast Charlie, The Out-laws etc), retired psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif (Ben Kingsley - Shang- chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Killer's Game etc) and Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren - Fast X, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms etc) formed a club to discuss and try solving cold cases. When retired nurse Joyce Meadowcroft (Celia Imrie - Nanny McPhee, Better Things TV series etc) became the latest member of their club, an actual murder of someone close occurred and they tried to solve it.

With the help from Private Constable Donna (Naomie Ackie - Blink Twice, The End of the F**king World TV series etc) they were able to find some important clues, although the lead investigator Detective Chief Inspector Hudson (Daniel Mays - Your Christmas or Mine?, Code 404 TV series etc) was not too happy with their involvement. Things became complicated when everything pointed to unexpected person.

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

As you can read above, the premise was something that was really interesting where four retired persons who like to investigate cold case as hobby somehow came across real life murder. Just like I expected, the movie did have few comedic moments and the characters were pretty interesting to see. Now the case itself originally seemed pretty straight forward but as the story progressed, it turned out to be more complicated. 

The characters looked to be having fun staying in the retirement home but they seemed to be a bit underdeveloped as the focus was more on the case investigation. Usually I am not that particular about such aspect, but I could not help compare this with the lovely A Man on the Inside. I felt that series managed to blend the comedy and case solving nicely and still able to show the dynamics of life in the retirement home for a retiree, while this film did not seem to really want to delve into it too much. 

The cast in general were OK. I think out of the four members of the club, I liked Ibrahim the most as he was calm, collected and seemed to be the most reliable. Oh I also liked DCI Hudson who provided some of the humorous scenes. In addition to the names I mentioned above, the movie had plenty of supporting cast such as David Tennant (Doctor Who TV series etc) and Geoff Bell (Mobland TV series etc) as owners of Coopers Chase Ian Ventham and Tony Curran respectively, Tom Ellis (Lucifer TV series etc) as Ron's son Jason, Jonathan Pryce (3 Body Problems TV series etc) as Elizabeth's husband Stephen, Henry Lloyd-Hughes (The Irregulars TV series etc) as Ian's trusted person Bogan, Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me? etc) as Bobby Tanner and few others. 

This movie was based on novel of the same title by Richard Osman who had created, produced and wrote for various British TV series. The novel itself was well received and a huge success with 3 more books released with same characters. Critics seemed to like the film while audience looked to embraced it as well. Chris Columbus who directed this is a veteran in making successful movies like Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone etc. I think high chance Netflix will make sequels in the near future.

In the end, this was a pretty intriguing whodunit film with a mystery that piqued my interest. I did not try to deduce the culprit while watching so could not say whether it was predictable kind, but I did enjoy the investigation as it was not hard to comprehend. I also liked the conclusion and the words spoken by Ibrahim before the closing scenes. Only thing that I thought a bit lacking was the characters depth, though I could understand it would be too long if they want to show more of it. The film duration was 118 minutes with no mid or post end credit scene. So if you are in the mood for light mystery film where the investigations was done by amateur group of retiree, then you should be able to enjoy this. But if your preference is a more serious whodunit kind, probably other movies might be more satisfying. The choice is yors.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars