Thursday Murder Club Bakes Up Diverting Murder Mystery Sustenance
Sometimes all you need is a nice, safe, and utterly pleasant piece of cinematic diversion that doesn’t insult your intelligence and is made with sturdy, workmanlike competence. Nothing earthshattering, and certainly not anything close to groundbreaking, but still fun, engaging, and, best of all, soothingly entertaining.
That’s the new Netflix star-studded murder mystery The Thursday Murder Club in a nutshell. Based on the best-selling book by Richard Osman, directed by Chris Columbus (Mrs. Doubtfire, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone), and with a screenplay written by Katy Brand (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) and Suzanne Heathcote, there’s nothing about this entire production that showcases even a modicum of risk. Yet it’s also a great deal of frothy merriment.
Not that we’re talking high art. Each narrative beat is preordained, the red herrings are obvious, and the outcome is never truly in doubt. But it’s all delivered with such enthusiastic confidence, and the heart beating at the center of things is so vibrantly strong, none of that bothered me too terribly much. Like a random episode of Columbo, Perry Mason, or Murder, She Wrote, I felt a pleasant rush of nostalgic euphoria while watching a quartet of elderly investigators in their quest to crack a trio of seemingly insoluble mysteries. It’s visual storytelling Agatha Christie-lite junk food. But when you’re in the mood for it, and when it’s this well-made, precious little else hits the spot better, and this sugary treat left me happily satiated.
Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), Ron (Pierce Brosnan), Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley), and Joyce (Celia Imrie) reside at Coopers Chase, a massive countryside retirement enclave — complete with its own historical cemetery — that makes Downton Abbey look positively tawdry in comparison. They call themselves the “Thursday Murder Club” because, every fourth day of the week, they get together to solve a collection of cold cases. These were all collected by one of their prior members, a former police officer who is currently unconscious in hospice care under the watchful eye of her loving husband, John (Paul Freeman). Joyce, an ex-trauma nurse who is uncommonly gifted in the kitchen, is a new resident whom Elizabeth has decided to audition for a spot in their group.
There are three murder mysteries that the quartet end up investigating. The first is a decades-old case involving a stabbed woman who was thrown out of her bedroom window and discovered on the street below by her befuddled husband. The second involves Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), one of the primary owners of Coopers Chase, who was overheard having a nasty dispute with flippant business partner Ian Ventham (David Tennant) shortly before his violent demise. As for the third, we’re not going to talk about that one, as it is the unexpected (but not exactly surprising) lynchpin that inadvertently ties everything together into a tidy bow.
Columbus has never been a subtle filmmaker, and his latest is as slickly produced, shot, and edited as anything he’s ever made. But he’s an astute craftsman, and there is a charming retro grace to his visual stylings that envelope the viewer like a warm, friendly hug. The pace of the film is measured but never lackadaisical, the comedic bits are mostly endearing, and the emotional grace notes delivered during the climax carry genuinely empathetic weight.
The cast is universally excellent, but in news that’s likely to shock no one, it’s Mirren who steals the show. Her Elizabeth is a strong investigator with a shadowy past — she knows far more about sickos, villains, and genuine human monstrosities than she probably should. Mirren brings agency, humor, and depth to her performance that stuck with me, and her scenes with Jonathan Pryce, portraying her chess-loving husband Stephen, who is dealing with the horrifying early stages of dementia, are particularly sublime. The actor also has melodious chemistry with Imrie, their verbal back-and-forth interactions a consistent delight.
Brosnan and Kingsley each have their essential moments (especially during a sequence where they play a goofily messy trick on the lead detective investigating Curran’s murder), as does an agreeably larger-than-life Tennant. Supporting players include Naomi Ackie and Daniel Mays on the side of law enforcement, Richard E. Grant as a devilish, flower-loving criminal mastermind, Tom Ellis as Ron’s former professional athlete (and current reality television competition show heartthrob) son, and Henry Lloyd-Hughes as a Cooper Chase landscaper who makes a gruesome discovery in the cemetery. All of them are solid, with Ackie and Mays the clear standouts.
It’s all undeniably thin, and as solid as Brand and Heathcote’s script might be (Knives Out this isn’t), there’s precious little that happens throughout that wasn’t a forgone conclusion from the first second Curran’s body was discovered with its head bashed in. But there’s something comforting about a modern-day feature that so unabashedly calls to mind the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple mysteries, most notably 1964’s Murder Most Foul. Spending time with The Thursday Murder Club was an afternoon well spent, and if they hold additional meetings in the future, I’ll gladly clear my calendar in order to attend.
Film Rating: 3 (out of 4)
