Retirement homes never looked so good. The elderly members of the “Thursday Murder Club” reside in Cooper’s Chase, a luxurious retirement community situated in a former convent, surrounded by lush green fields. There is a whirlwind of activities. The apartments are palatial. The decor is beautiful, and one can assume the food is delicious. Yes, there is also a hospice wing (people whisper when they mention it), but in the meantime, Cooper’s Chase is as good as it gets. Until people start getting murdered.
Richard Osman’s 2020 novel of the same name was a huge best-seller, leading to three sequels, published in 2021, 2022, and 2023. The next installment in the Thursday Murder Club series is scheduled for release this year. Osman, a television producer and quiz show host, has a love of crime fiction, and thought up the idea for his book after visiting an upscale retirement village. Four pensioners gather together every Thursday in the “jigsaw puzzle room” to investigate cold cases. The actual police force has given up, so why shouldn’t they take a crack at it? The “crime” in the book is complicated, involving crooked real estate developers, business corruption, multiple suspects, and many red herrings.
Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote adapted the novel for the screen, and Chris Columbus directed and produced. Columbus’ directing resume goes all the way back to “Adventures in Babysitting” (1987), and includes such hits as “Home Alone,” “Mrs. Doubtfire,” and two Harry Potter movies. Columbus has assembled a murderer’s row (sorry) of talent: Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie play the quartet of amateur sleuths, and smaller roles are played by David Tennant, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, and Jonathan Pryce, with Richard E. Grant appearing in an effective cameo. These actors are heavy-hitters, and they give this rather light caper some real weight.
The “Thursday Murder Club” was started by D.I. Penny Gray, a retired police officer who now lies in the hospice wing in a coma, watched over by her husband. Elizabeth (Mirren) and Penny were dear friends, so Elizabeth has kept the club going. Elizabeth herself is driven and steely-eyed, coming up with the club’s plan of attack and handing out assignments. She drops hints suggesting she was probably pretty high up in MI6. Being a “little old lady” gives her a great cover. It’s useful to be underestimated. Ron (Brosnan) is a former trade unionist, a rabble-rousing and energetic figure, and Ibrahim (Kingsley), a former psychiatrist, adds psychological nuance to their investigations. Joyce (Imrie) is a newcomer to the club, eager to help out and make some new friends. We first see them investigating a head-scratcher of a cold case from 1973, but this is derailed by the real-life murder of Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), the rough-around-the-edges owner of Cooper’s Chase. Curran’s co-owner is the rapacious and unethical Ian Ventham (Tennant), in the throes of a contentious divorce and hard up for cash, who is moving quickly with his plan to evict the residents of Cooper’s Chase so he can turn the historic building into a pricey apartment complex. This causes an uproar among the residents.
A police inspector new to the force, one Donna De Freitas (Ackie), comes to Cooper’s Chase to give a presentation on home security, and Elizabeth senses, correctly, that Donna is bored out of her mind and hungry to do some real police work. The Murder Club needs a woman on the inside, and Donna is happy to get on board. Other characters include the Polish immigrant handyman Bogdan Jankowski (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), Elizabeth’s husband (Pryce), slowly succumbing to dementia, and Tom (Jason Ritchie), Ron’s ex-boxer son, now participating in television programs like “Ice Skating with the Stars,” much to his father’s dismay.
The tone of the film is a little lukewarm, and the visuals aren’t the most thrilling, but there’s a very welcome absence of condescension and sentimentality that is often used in the portrayal of elderly people on film, particularly when they engage in activities not typically associated with their age. It’s not presented as amusingly ironic that old people are running around solving crimes. Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce are all intelligent and lively, dogged in their pursuit of the truth. They don’t “fall for” anything, and they will stop at nothing. You don’t suddenly turn into a sweet old stereotype after a certain age, especially not if you’ve been an agent with MI6!
Richard Osman’s series is beloved by its fans. People feel proprietary about books they love. It’s hard to say whether or not the book’s fans will groove to the film adaptation, but “The Thursday Murder Club” is engaging and often amusing. The plot contains enough surprises that the “whodunit” generates real suspense. The characters aren’t particularly well-developed, but neither are they stereotypes. The film feels more like a television pilot than a stand-alone film, which may be exactly what Netflix is looking for.
Jessica Fletcher, after all, solved crimes for 12 seasons.
