"The Thursday Murder Club" is a newly released Netflix film that has been much hyped. It is directed by the seasoned director Chris Columbus and it is based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Richard Osman. Although I have not read Osman’s book, so I can make no comparative remarks between it and this adaptation, it is fair to assume that Osman himself is pleased with the film as he is one of the producers on it.

The film is about a four-person club in the retirement community of Coopers Chase that meets once a week in the "room usually for jigsaws” to attempt to solve real cold cases, presumably feeling somewhat bored by the other ways they can occupy their time, slyly hinted at by their keeping documents from one such bloody case in a jigsaw puzzle box.

The club has effectively lost one of its four members, the ex-police offer Penny Gray, to a permanently unconscious state in the hospice, but she is replaced by a newcomer to the home, Joyce (Celia Imrie). The case they are investigating is from 1973 and they have alliteratively called it "the case of the woman in white who fell out of the window.” However, the club is thrown into full-fledged sleuthing mode when a co-owner of the retirement home, and also the sole impediment to the home itself becoming victim to a modern development which would see the residents forcefully removed, is murdered. As with the typical detective story, the police, or at least the highest-ranked part of them, are incompetent and it is the club that ensures progress is made on the case and subsequent developments.

Positive aspects

I am going to give this film a slightly positive score but spend more time on negative than positive criticism of it. That may seem illogical and unfair but I do not think so. For two key aspects by which it works and which make it a watchable film cannot be analyzed in detail for it would spoil the viewing for anyone who has not yet seen it. All I will say here on these aspects is that as a whodunit, it plays its sleights of hand well and keeps the viewer guessing till the end. It is also relatively fast-paced; not at all tiresome to watch. Additionally, there are good comedic moments, such as when Joyce’s new male friend is irritated by the club’s interest in her, expostulating "how long is all this kerfuffle going to last? We’re doing the extra-hard Sudoku here” or when DCI Chris Hudson (Daniel Mays) insults the club as a "band of merry pensioners” and the "Tuesday Death Society.” I also have to add that I also enjoyed the use of a presumably newly-minted British diminutive of Ibsy for the character of Ibraham Arif, played by Ben Kingsley, as I am only used to hearing of it as Ibo. All in all, not to give this film a "pass” would be to do it an injustice.

What is more, there are additional points for which to commend it. For instance, the film is to be lauded in having as its leads an aged set of characters. Then, there is also the way the film inverts the retirement home stereotype by presenting such a home as a place where an older person might actually want to stay. When the widow Joyce arrives, it is her daughter Joanna, played by Ingrid Oliver the real-life spouse of Osman, who attempts to talk her mother out of moving into the home rather than forcing her into it, by suggesting she live near, or "nearish” her instead. Joyce responds with "I need to be somewhere where I have the chance to make new friends. How can I possibly do that living on my own in [the London borough of] Hackney, surrounded by, I don’t know, hipsters and vegan bakeries?” Although afterward Joyce privately admits to a photograph of her late husband that she is unused to making significant decisions, it is clear she makes the right one in moving in, as later she exclaims that "Coopers Chase is exceptional.” Additionally, there is Ibrahim, who when considering the possibility they will all have to live the retirement community, muses that "I would miss it here. Here, if you choose to be alone, you close your door. If you prefer to be with people, you open it. What better recipe for happiness?”

There is another element I need to commend. The detective genre has become somewhat dreary of late with the troubled male detective whose greatest challenge is his battle with his own demons rather than his investigation of crime scene evidence. Although this type, for instance, made House (2004-2012) – which even though ostensibly a medical drama falls into the detective genre – compelling, there has been far too much of it in recent times, as evidenced by two such Netflix miniseries of recent months, Dept. Q and Untamed. Although in "The Thursday Murder Club," the retirees have had longer lives allowing for a greater accumulation of cynicism and regret, and are residents in a place with effectively an ominous and impending one-way exit, all the characters of the club are lively and positive and a joy to watch in this regard. Surprisingly perhaps, even their physical well-being seems to not be an issue.

Negative aspects

All that being said, there is much that is wrong with this film, and though it does not overwhelm it to the point of making it unwatchable and will not, I think, prevent this movie perhaps being only the first of a number of sequels, it does make its hype unwarranted and will prevent it from ever becoming a film classic.

Before having watched the film but having seen the cast list, one element I thought I was also going to applaud was its quartet. I was suspecting that rather than having a stereotypical dominant detective that throws all others in the shade, the crime solving here was going to be a communal effort. Yet, even though the other three club members certainly play a role in events, and Joyce is particularly watchable, it is really Elizabeth Best played by Helen Mirren that dominates all, making the film something of a Helen Mirren Show. Greater balance between the characters would have made for a better story.

However, save for the aforementioned positivity, it is with the characters as a whole that I have the biggest issue. It is not that they are badly portrayed – a cast of this collective talent would have made that nigh on impossible anyhow. It is rather that they are types rather than individuals. For, I feel that what really makes a detective drama compelling and memorable is not the cases, which can soon be forgotten, but rather the character by which one becomes fascinated. This is surely true for the archetype of all detective stories – Sherlock Holmes, and can be felt for others, I myself, being a great fan of "Inspector Morse."

In the film, Elizabeth, with her "wide portfolio of skills” is an ex-government agent, Ron (Pierce Brosnan) is a jovial and charming ex-trade unionist, Ibrahim is the intellectual of the group being a former psychiatrist and the newcomer Joyce describes herself as "I was a nurse, then a mum, then a nurse again” reflecting this in her retirement by evincing medical knowledge and also being a cake-baking housewife type. David Tennant as Ian Ventham is, as always, a joy to watch, and he portrays his immoral character with his characteristic gusto, yet, Ian as a greedy developer with no human feelings at all is once again really no more than a trope. Leo Tolstoy declares in "War and Peace" that for female beauty, it is actually a flaw with "a thoroughly attractive woman” that makes for a "special and particular form of beauty” I would say also that for literary characters, such as in general Tolstoy’s own, it is something additionally unexpected about them that makes them particularly compelling. That is not the case with the characters in the film though.

And as for the character played by Richard E. Grant, he is even an embarrassment. For his dangerous nature is built up by being repeatedly alluded or referred to, such as Freitas calling him "a nasty piece of work” and Ventham being visibly petrified of his name, until he is finally revealed to the viewer. Then though, despite his scowly face, he proves to have none of the aura expected of a crime lord, and in the face of a challenge proves to be exceedingly weak-willed. Then there is a puzzle concerning the police officer Donna de Freitas (Naomi Ackie). She is initially excluded from the heart of the county police station, presumably due to her gender as she is set to make the tea, until the Thursday Murder Club engineer her appointment to the murder case. This is a ridiculous anachronism though – it works in the 2023 film "Wicked Little Letters" this is because it is set in the 1920s, but a century later, in the wake of Cressida Dick’s smashing of the glass ceiling of the Metropolitan Police Service of London in becoming commissioner from 2017-2022, a normal woman PC, even in the supposedly more conservative shires of England, would raise no eyebrows at all.

As for the supposedly more conservative shires, this leads to final point I wish to make concerning this film, and that is its setting. It presents yet another England-based drama set in the supposedly idyllic English countryside. Much in the way that neighboring Ireland is presented as "the Emerald Isle” of timeless quaint Celtic charm, England is too often shown as a land of pretty stone mansions and cottages set in a bucolic environment. This is surely to play to the expectations of viewers from outside of the country, especially those in the United States. It is true, that dramas are also set in the megalopolis of London, but it is nearly always one or the other, presenting a skewed picture of England as a whole.

Empty calories of streaming

All in all, "The Thursday Murder Club" fits a pattern with too many recent releases on Netflix and other streaming devices – that is, superior in quality to much of what ends up in the cinemas these days, such as the superhero movies that are so formulaic that there are no need for Murder Club sleuthing skills to know how they end before the metaphorical curtain has even gone up, but not overly memorable in themselves. For it has long been recognized that the key initial promise that the streaming services offered seems to be slipping away. It looks as if Netflix has given up on a desire to produce great dramas and appears unlikely to green-light another film of the quality and memorability of "The Irishman," especially as it has even canceled truly great series such as "Kaos."

In short, I think that this film can be summarized by reference to its creamy cakes. They are surely enjoyable when consuming them, but simply as sugary treats they leave little in the way of lasting nourishment.

It is worth looking a little deeper at this issue. For to carry the metaphor further, today we surely all know that cakes are not good for us, but still we eat them anyway, and do so for the enjoyment of the moment. Thus, it would seem that even if streaming services like Netflix are increasingly providing fare of empty calories, there is nothing wrong with them doing so. They are after all not art portals but entertainment providers, and what they provide, in the main, still entertains.

It is indeed, that perspective is the same one that has increasingly led Hollywood away from story-based films to the CGI extravaganzas. If both the cinema and streaming services are responding to public demand, then they cannot be faulted for this. What I think is missed here though is that popularity and lasting reputation are not usually interlinked, and streaming services do not have to make a choice between them, having the ability to promote works that can succeed in both areas.

For whilst making a profit is understandable the "bottom line,” it is surely not the only line, and making money should not be the sole consideration here. Indeed, the giants of capitalism, either as companies or individuals, have often invested heavily in culture with no expectation of fiscal returns, but in an awareness that this enhances their image. Netflix and the other streaming services are surely able to produce the majority of their productions in the interests of profit, but could then use their financial success as a cushion with which to produce some dramas that will truly stand the test of time, and burnish their reputations as well. It is an approach that Netflix seemingly took at the beginning and has been taken in the book publishing industry, including perhaps by the publishers of Osman’s bestseller, from which this film is adapted, and it is one to be extolled.

Review 3 from 5.