‘The Thursday Murder Club’ movie review: Dazzling ensemble powers this cosy whodunit

The Thursday Murder Club would have done much better as a series. Based on the first of Richard Osman’s book series, featuring four pensioners solving crimes from their posh retirement home, Cooper’s Chase, the film would have worked better as a show rather than a movie.

The third act would not have felt so rushed. Neither would there have been any need to discard so many side plots, which all contributed to an intriguing, irresistible layering.

However, as the poet or pop singer (both might well be interchangeable) says, if you cannot be with the one you love, you might as well love the one you are with. Chris Columbus, of the reverential Harry Potter film adaptations, gives us quite a lot to love in this adaptation of Osman’s 2020 bestseller.

First there is the cast —Helen Mirren as retired spy, Elizabeth, Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim, a psychiatrist in his earlier life, and Celia Imrie as Joyce, a retired nurse, are excellent and clearly having a great time.

Pierce Brosnan was not the first name that popped in one’s head to play former trade union leader, ‘Red’ Ron, his wild and uncouth Conrad Harrigan from Mobland notwithstanding. Elizabeth sets the tone earlyT, frostily telling Joyce, “Never use the words bright-eyed feisty old ladies in my presence.”

Apart from the fab four, the side characters are also played by the best and brightest in the industry. Jonathan Pryce plays Stephen, Elizabeth’s husband, who is struggling with dementia, while David Tennant plays the horrid Ian Ventham, who owns Cooper’s Chase with the shady Tony Curran (Geoff Bell).

There is also the frightening Bobby Tanner (Richard E. Grant), who chops people’s fingers off and who the Metropolitan police have been looking for the longest time.

Elizabeth, Ibrahim and Ron are members of the Thursday Murder Club, where they try to solve cold cases. Joyce, who has recently moved into Cooper’s Chase, is included in the gang as a temporary member as they need her medical expertise to solve their latest case: of a woman stabbed and thrown out of a window. Things get real for the Thursday Murder Club when bodies begin to drop.

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Elizabeth, Ibrahim, Ron and Joyce get to work much to the frustration and secret amusement of the police, PC Donna De Freitas (Naomi Ackie) and DCI Chris Hudson (Daniel Mays). Ron’s son, Jason (Tom Ellis), a former boxer turned reality TV star might be a suspect as might Bogdan (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), the Polish contractor, who plays a mean game of chess with Stephen. Joyce’s daughter, Joanna (Ingrid Oliver, Osman’s wife), who works in a hedge fund, is co-opted for her ability to follow the money trail.

Cinematographer Don Burgess has filled the frames with an airy lightness quite like Joyce’s multi-layered cakes as does Thomas Newman’s score. There is a lot to like about this film, but it could have been so much better, and nuanced, had there been more time.

The Thursday Murder Club is currently streaming on Netflix