The Thursday Murder Club (2025) Dir: Chris Columbus
- Ridley Coote
- Sep 5
- 2 min read
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If anyone has read my book reviews, they will know that I was a big fan of the Richard Osman novel from which this Netflix original film takes name and inspiration. It's a quaint but intelligent murder mystery book, which falls under the 'cosy crime' genre. I was hoping that this adaptation, directed by Chris Columbus, would prove to be similarly enjoyable. Its early reviews were pretty middling, which quelled my excitement a little, but I was still fairly hopeful that I'd enjoy it.
The film was lightly amusing, I did chuckle a little bit here and there, but it lacked the emotional heart required to make me care about any of the characters. I think what it boiled down to was that some of the characterisation was way off, which I found disappointing, considering how well-written and formed the characters were in the book. I also think some of the characters were miscast, particularly 'Ron' and 'Chris', who were only vaguely like their characters in the book, unfortunately.
There were several tweaks to the original story, which, although I can understand, considering the time constraints of a feature film, I found a little unsatisfying. It made the film feel quite rushed and shallow, with the mystery lacking any of the succinctness that made Osman's novel so popular. The film got all the main plot points, which I suppose is the most important thing, albeit they fumbled the final reveal very poorly. It felt like the film was missing so much of the character that I had loved in the book.
To focus on my more positive opinions on the cast, I'll start with those who stood out the most for the right reasons; Helen Mirren - who was not my first choice for her character but absolutely smashed it, Celia Imrie - who was very endearing, Ben Kingsley - who can get away with playing just about anyone, and Naomi Ackie, who was absolutely wonderful, and probably my favourite performer in the film. I was less keen on Pierce Brosnon, purely because of how poorly cast he was. I didn't hate his acting, but he was not the right fit for the character at all.
The same can be said for Daniel Mays, whose character was so different from the one in the book it might as well have been someone else entirely. Although I did enjoy most of their performances, the rest of the supporting cast didn't really feature enough, or were not written well enough, to feel as significant as they should have. With that said, some of them still warranted a mention, considering some of their roles; Tom Ellis, David Tennant, Jonathon Pryce, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, and Richard E. Grant.
Overall, although this was certainly a watchable and cosy crime comedy, I found that it fell well short of the quality found in the book that it was based upon. It really broke my heart to be so critical of this film, because it really could've been something so much more fun and special. I'm sure my negativity is not helped by my attachment to the books, but even so, this was not a particularly well-made film.
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