The Thursday Murder Club | Film Review

 

Four retirees spend their time solving mysteries for fun. But when a real murder turns up on their doorstep, they have to put their detective skills to the test.

I heard about the book this is based on when it first came out, but it never seemed particularly interesting to me so I never picked it up. But when it was announced that a film was coming out, that seemed slightly more interesting, especially when the cast was announced. So I decided that I'd watch the film and, if I liked it, I'd pick up the book.

Unfortunately, I didn't like the film enough to buy the book.

But as mentioned, I did really like the cast. The film stars Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie as the Thursday Murder Club, as well as Naomi Ackie, Tom Ellis, David Tennant and Jonathan Pryce - what an incredible cast!

And they all played their characters really well - but other aspects of the film left a lot to be desired.

From the very beginning, the story moved very slowly.

But this would have been fine if the time was used to either make us fall in love with the characters, or to involve us in the mystery. As it was, the characters aren't really likeable, we don't care about them and we don't care about the mystery.

We don't care about the mystery because, as well as it being convoluted and adding in too many new characters to keep track of, it just wasn't fun to solve. No matter what the reveal will be, it doesn't really matter because we're not invested.

And the reveal itself wasn't great.

There were too many characters and too many red herrings to really keep track of what was happening and where the plot would be going next.

The events of the film felt far more unrealistic than they were supposed to. Of course, we have to suspend our disbelief, but it gets to a point where there are too many coincidences and convenient things to move the plot forward.

There were some good ideas here, namely how unique the plot is in the first place, which is probably why the book is so popular. But the film just didn't work as well as it needed to. It would have been really interesting to get to know and love the characters before having to follow them on this journey.

4.5/10