Film: The Thursday Murder Club
Cast: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, Celia Imrie, David Tennant, Jonathan Pryce, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays
Director: Chris Columbus
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 118 min

Richard Osman’s 2020 bestseller forms the basis for this film adapted by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, directed and produced by Chris Columbus, about a quartet of septuagenarians living in a retirement home, solving cold murder cases for fun. The novel had three sequels, which are also set to be adapted to film.

These elderly members played by Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie, of the “Thursday Murder Club” residing in Cooper’s Chase, a luxurious retirement community with a hospice wing, situated in a former convent, were having fun until people start getting murdered for real, close to home.

The Club was started by D.I. Penny Gray, a retired police officer who now lies in a coma. Elizabeth (Mirren) who hints at being in the MI6, being Penny’s good friend, is the one keeping the club going. Ron (Brosnan) a former trade unionist, Ibrahim (Kingsley), a former psychiatrist, and Joyce (Imrie), a nurse and newcomer to the club, are the others in the team. Their investigation of a cold case from 1973 gets interrupted by the murder of Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), the owner of the retirement home. Ian Ventham (Tennant), the co-owner is moving quickly with his plan to evict the residents of Cooper’s Chase, in the meantime. Elizabeth, in a voice-over by Mirren, walks us through the current case.