Since I have posted two reviews in the last couple of days, one about a book and the other about a movie, I figured I ought to do a movie review that is based on a novel written by Richard Osman back in 2020 titled The Thursday Murder Club. The adaptation to the big screen was a written screenplay by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote. The movie was directed by Chris Columbus. Yes that Chris Columbus who directed Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, the first 3 Harry Potter movies and my personal favorite screenplay he wrote The Goonies back in 1985.
I have had this movie on my watchlist since August 22 of last year with the intent to read the book first and then watch the movie on Netflix. I have a long TBR list and wanted to see this movie because I have heard a lot of people have liked this story. The film is 2 hours long so I figured what the heck because I hoped it would at least be 90% of the material discussed in the book. I have talked with several people who had seen this movie after reading the book. The comments made about it was that the movie did justice to the book and I need to watch it and save my time reading the printed copy.
The Thursday Murder Club stars Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant and several other supporting cast member actors. Mirren plays Elizabeth Best a retired sleuth. Brosnan plays Ron Ritchie a retiree. Kingsley plays, Professor Ibrahim Arif, as retired psychologist. Imrie plays a retired trauma nurse, Joyce Meadowcroft. Finally, Tennant plays Ian Ventham the co-owner of Cooper’s Chase.
The movie starts out with the viewers seemingly dropping in on a group of elderly amateur sleuths with a wide range of past experiences to give them abilities to solve murders. Their favorite cases were for their club called the Thursday Murder Club. They meet every month at the Cooper’s Chase retirement home and village where all of the characters of the story live.
As the murder club uncovers the clues and opens further the investigations that bring about other complications. One of the owners of Cooper’s Chase tragically is murdered. What a perfect time for this sleuthing club, to not only work on their cold case from 1973, but to help try to find the killer of their landlord of the property Ventham.
While this movie is just 2 hours long, it seems to be going at a fast pace revealing multiple layers to each character introduced and the parts they all play to the ultimate conclusions of all plots and subplots. I believe this movie has a good continuity throughout which is probably helped by the novelist Osman to be one of the executive producers of the film. However, it seemed to be a little too short of a movie and the ending was abruptly transpired but left open for a sequel so that is a positive.
I was very intrigued and invested with every character, setting and the flow of the picture from beginning to end. Finding out the important necessity of every person involved has made me want to possibly go back and read the actual novel and the subsequent novels in the Thursday Murder Club series. This movie is definitely worth watching. It is a Netflix co-production so you can find it on their service. What ratings do I give it? A thumbs up and 4.5 out of 5 stars because of the ending and the cinematography and direction by Columbus, giving the movie purpose and interesting qualities. I would love to hear your comments about this movie and if you have read the book or watched it. Please leave a comment below.
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