I love a good murder mystery film. Especially one that has vibes of an Agatha Christie murder mystery. An example is a bunch of people all set in one location, such as a house, a plane, or in the case of “The Woman In Cabin 10” a yacht. The Netflix Benoit Blanc series, starring Daniel Craig, is a recent, very successful example of these types of stories as well. This particular story is based on the novel by Ruth Ware. It has a conspiracy at the forefront of it, which makes it interesting to watch. I would have watched this if it was a theatrical release, but it’s still good as a streaming release. It’s the kind of movie for stay at home moms, and those kinds of films can be entertaining.

Loura “Lo” Blacklock (Kiera Knightley) is a travel journalist in England. She gets an invite to go on a luxurious yacht. When she gets to the location of the yacht, she notices some people she knows. After a few handshakes and hugs, greetings, and the official embarkation of boarding the ship, things settle down. She’s settling in in her cabin as she happens to look out at the window, and she notices a body goes overboard the boat. It just so happens to be somebody who she ran into while going into her cabin through another cabin earlier in the day. This causes panic in her, and she lets the rest of the passengers and crew know about what she saw. They appease her by saying nobody is missing and everything is okay. This starts a very worrisome scenario for her.

Kiera Knightley is an actress I loved from the first thing I’ve seen her in. Bend it Like Beckham is a sports film about friends who play soccer together in England. Since then, she’s made a huge name for herself with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Jane Austin adaptations, and other dramatic films. She’s a very good actress who has worked with a lot of Hollywood people. She has turned into a very good leading actress in Hollywood or abroad. These are the kind of roles she should be getting and killing in her career. I was on board with her the entire time in this movie. She’s an engaging protagonist I was glad to watch throughout the film. I can’t help but like her.

The rest of the cast is filled out with noticeable faces from film and television. Starting with Guy Pearce as Richard Bullmer, the husband of the woman who assembled everyone on board. He has an ulterior motive that nobody could have seen coming. He’s a very sinister character. The rest of the cast are faces from television shows like Ted Lasso, Hannah Waddingham, David Morrisey, The Walking Dead, David Ings, The Gentleman, Gugu Mbatha Raw, Surface and Kaya Scodelario, The Maze Runner franchise. These are all good character actors that filled out the cast in a solid way. None of them stood out in any way to me, though. They were all just there but didn’t make much of an impact on me while watching the movie.

The location of this picture is a luxurious yacht named the Aurora Borealis, named after the northern lights in North America at the top of the world. This boat is quite beautiful inside in the hallways and outside on the decks. There are a lot of scenes that use the boat in a way that makes it a character in the story. There are many different compartments and secret rooms most of the guests don’t know about. Secret doors go to various places on board. In a murder mystery, that’s the kind of place that makes sense in the context of the story. You need a great place for your murder mystery to take place. The director Simon Stone used every part of this yacht to his advantage while filming. Especially in a key chase scene and a scene involving the lead character hiding out away from those trying to get her. 

A key part of a murder mystery is the motivations of the characters involved in the film. These characters have all kinds of motivations regarding reasons why they would be involved in the killing of this woman. While investigating the kilKnightley knightley character starts to find clues to what may, in fact, be going on on this boat. It’s more of a deeply embedded scheme than she could have thought. There is money and wealth as a whole at the forefront of this mystery. Motivations of greed can convince people to do the most heinous crimes. The script, written by Stone and others, based on the book, was very good. It infused quite a bit of intrigue and subterfuge, which added a great element to the overall story. I like a dense plot in my murder mystery movies.

“The Woman In Cabin 10” is a good mystery murder film with vibes of the Knives Out movies or Agatha Christie adaptations.  The lead character played by Knightley is good but not as engaging as other protagonists in these types of movies I’ve seen in the past. The supporting cast are equally unremarkable in their roles as well. The script by Stone and others based on the best-selling novel was good, and the direction kept me engaged throughout the movie. The film as a whole was just okay but not great. In another director’s hands, this may have been a better movie. That being said, I did like what I watched, but I didn’t live it.

3 stars

Dan Skip Allen