She isn’t wrong. That is an excellent way to describe this movie.
I have never read The Thursday Murder Club, so if you want to know if this is a good adaptation or not, then I can’t help you. What I can say is that this was a breezy, cozy movie that might have benefitted from being a four episode miniseries instead.
Maybe. If only because there is a lot of plot to get through and a lot of characters here that could have used some more depth. Or maybe I just wanted to spend more time with everyone because they’re lovely. It’s hard to say.
We follow a group of British pensioners who make up the titular Thursday Murder Club, where they meet to discuss cold cases. They all live in Coopers Chase, a retirement village under threat for redevelopment. When a murder happens for real, the Club leaps into action.
And they do leap. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron, and Ibrahim are all very active and proactive when it comes to getting into trouble and figuring things out. Out of the four, Elizabeth gets the most focus. Helen Mirren puts in a standard, strong Helen Mirren performance, all steely-eyed except for the moments where she’s exploiting the “sweet old lady” trope to its fullest effect.
Joyce, played by Celia Imrie, got the most laughs out of me, and the joy that she approached everything was infectious. Unfortunately, the menfolk of the Club got substantially less to do, particularly Ben Kingsley’s Ibrahim. He’s the only one to not have his own subplot or secondary character to bounce off of.
Not that there would have been much room to add in a whole other character. Despite the nearly two hour runtime, the plot is stuffed to the gills with murder and secrets and deductions and tea and cakes.
It’s a fairly well-crafted mystery, though. Almost everything was foreshadowed in one way or another. Nothing came out of left field or felt unearned, which is important. I was satisfied with the solution, especially since I didn’t manage to guess it.
I also appreciated the care and respect that the movie paid to its older cast. As fun and pretty as the movie is, it still touches on some heavy topics. Elizabeth’s husband has dementia and her best friend is in the hospice wing in a coma. Joyce just recently lost her husband and has a rocky relationship with her adult daughter.
I never really thought that anyone was actually in danger or threatened, but there are still these moments of seriousness that let the cast stretch their considerable dramatic muscles.
Unfortunately, the movie ended on a semi-sour note that felt very out of place with the coziness and fun that had preceded everything. While presented as justice, and therefore morally right, I was left feeling very uneasy. It’s an ending that wouldn’t be entirely out of place in an Agatha Christie novel, but was discordant here. It pulled me out of the movie, and is the one thing that stuck with me the next day.
Well, that and Tom Ellis ice skating to Lady Gaga. At least, I’m choosing to assume that it was actually him and not a stunt performer considering that we almost never clearly see his face. It’s more fun to assume.
Random Thoughts
As an American, it was very weird to hear about Fentanyl as something other than a horrible drug that’s ravaging the country. I didn’t realize that it is used in actual medicine.
Richard E. Grant has a small cameo where he destroys the scenery with relish. I’m glad that his screentime was limited, though.
Joyce’s cakes did look amazing. Now I want cake.
Joyce’s daughter is played by Ingrid Oliver, who just so happens to be married to series author Richard Osman.
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An Honest Fangirl loves video games, horror movies, and superheroes, and occasionally manages to put words together in a coherent and pleasing manner.
I too enjoyed this. It was light and fun and I enjoyed the characters. Since this is a book series, I hope it does well enough for Netflix to make more movies based on the franchise.
ReplyDeleteFentanyl was developed as a drug for pain management. It is supposed to be quite effective. Sadly, the epidemic of Fentanyl abuse has resulted in under using the drug for people in real pain, who need it to cope. The story of how it became the drug of choice for addicts is way too long to go into here.