The Thursday Murder Club is a new murder mystery film adapted from the novel of the same name from Richard Osman. This is another movie that focuses on an older group of characters who hang out together, getting involved in some kind of hyjinx. In this case, solving murders. I like the concept of the book, but I don’t know if it needed to be adapted into a film or not. Thinking about it, though, more films based on books is a good idea. The movies themselves need to be better than this one was. Given the talent involved, this was a bit of a letdown for me.

Four retired men and women, Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) and ex-police inspector, Ron (Pierce Brosnan), Ibraham (Ben Kingsley) an ex-professor of psychiatry and, Joyce (Celia Emrie) an ex-nurse all live in an old folks home called Coopers Chase in England. In their spare time, they investigate cold case murders. When an actual murder happens nearby, they figure they should put their skills to work. Except investigating real murders can get you on the wrong side of the police and others who don’t want their crimes uncovered. These four senior citizens have more thrills and chills on their hands than they bargained for.

I am a fan of films featuring a group of older folks getting into some kind of hijinx. They’ve become a new subgenre of comedy. I’ve seen my share of these types of films the last few years. This particular group of seniors I didn’t expect to see together, but they were fine in the end. There are two Oscar winners with Mirren and Kingsley and a James Bond alum with Brosnan. Emrie is more of a Brit Box kind of actress with an appearance in the Netflix series The Diplomat to add to her credit. It’s such a good group. I’m surprised the casting director came up with all these exceptional people for these roles. It seems a little too good to be true. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t live up to the great cast.

The story in this movie is a bit convoluted. There is a subplot about the property where the seniors live being demolished to put up condominiums and the multiple owners who have different plans for what they want to do with the property. There are also some deeper subplots involving side characters that would be spoilers if I were to mention them. Plus, the story arc involves a police officer played by Naomie Ackie. There is a lot going on in this movie. Chris Columbus is a world-renowned director, but he may have bitten off more than he could chew with the script from Katy Brand and Suzanne Heachcote. It’s hard to follow along with everything that’s going on.

As mentioned, there is quite a cast in this murder mystery. Ackie (Whitney Housten: I Wanna Dance With Somebody) is a police officer with little experience but gets dragged into this investigation by the four I already talked about. David Tennant (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) is one of the owners of the property, but he has bigger plans for it, which the residents don’t like much. Tom Ellis (Lucifer) is the son and ex-boxing champion of Brosnan’s character. He has some dealings with some shady people who end up getting him wrapped up in the investigation and thrown in jail. These are just a few of the massive cast in this movie. Columbus assembled quite a few Brits to help tell this very outlandish story.

The murder mystery itself is a bit crazy. It seems everybody is a suspect, and they all have alibis. If this is the case, then who was the murderer? Well, that is pretty obvious by how the film starts and who works for whom and so forth. Columbus and company don’t hide who the murderer is. He’s pretty easy to figure out if you’re paying attention to the early part of the film. A framing device in Black and White, showing the cold case at the beginning and end of the movie, deals with something entirely different, though. How the script combines these two stories is a bit reaching. Even though the film is based on the book, it doesn’t mean the story doesn’t stretch its believability factor. That’s why I’m not the biggest fan of this movie. 

The Thursday Murder Club is a fine film for families looking for something to watch with the grandparents on the weekend. It has okay performances from the A-list seniors it stars. Mirren steals the show from the others, but it was nice to see all of these actors together in one movie. The script based on the book is a bit convoluted, though. It goes in too many different directions to make sense. I love a good murder mystery, but this one wasn’t that good. I’d rather watch Only Murders in the Building because that’s funny. This had a few interesting elements, but not a lot that pulled me in. Columbus might just be better off working with kids again. This wasn’t his best directing work. It was all over the place as a film.

2 ½

Dan Skip Allen