The Thursday Murder Club or Only Murders in the Downton Abbey Universe. It’s clear that Netflix saw The Thursday Mystery Club as their attempt to do their version of Only Murders in the Building but for some reason they chose to do this as a TWO HOUR film instead of an 5 or 6 part TV series. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley & Celire Imrie maintain their equity cards by starring in the movie adaptation of the popular novels. The film starts off with a case that seems to have happened in the past and then they sort of forget about that until the end when the film brings it back in what I think they think is a clever wrap-around and tying of a loose end. When the main mystery ended I was happy that the film was over but then the film still had this mystery to wrap up and it's not really worth it so if you want to save yourself 10 minutes or so then once the main mystery is over just hit stop.
The film doesn't bother to introduce these characters as they appear to be in the middle of discussing a cold case. It would have been nice for the film to attempt to introduce these characters to us so we can understand them and side with them as they try and solve the mystery. But since they couldn’t be bothered to do that then I found myself not really connecting with any of them. When the film starts with the 1970’s case, Celia Imrie (Joyce) walks in with her daughter and her daughter reacts to the photo of the dead person but Joyce doesn't so Helen Mirren (Elizabeth) deduces from that that Joyce has some medical experience and might be useful.
That’s not to say the film is completely without any positives. I think that Celia Imrie is the only one of the main group that seems to understand what type of film she is in and like most things that she is in she elevates the quality of the overall thing. I did also chuckle at the moment where Joyce and Elizabeth are drinking gin on the bus in front of the child. I also thought that Daniel Mays and Naomi Ackie were a good double act as Chris Hudson and Donna De Freitas. I would like to have seen the film about them, that is how uninteresting the main group is. David Tennant pops up although as one of the evil property developers and is killed off and being a Doctor Who fan I did enjoy his part but then he gets killed off and I lost interest for a while. Ingrid Oliver is also in this as the Daughter of Joyce and gets two scenes so I suppose being married to the writer of the books can only get you so far. Sadly Oliver’s part is fairly one dimensional and she isn’t allowed to be very interesting with it.
The Thursday Murder Club might be a popular series of books but they need to drastically improve the films going forward. Based on this film, the series relies on generic genre tropes and doesn't attempt to do anything interesting or remotely original with it. It honestly pains me to write this about a film starring some of the greatest living actors from this part of the world but I think that the film is so pedestrian in its plot and the way that it is produced that i think that this wouldn’t look out of place on ITV3 on a Sunday afternoon. Chris Columbus directed the first two Home Alone films (two of my favourite films of all time) and directed the first two Harry Potter films and yet seems to have been reduced to taking projects where he can earn an easy pay-day.
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