Are critics crowing over ‘The Thursday Murder Club’?
Are critics crowing over ‘The Thursday Murder Club’?
The movie is stacked with an impeccable cast, but was it favored with good reviews?
One of the coolest things about Netflix is that its originals can now attract talent every bit as good as the casts of legacy Hollywood studios that have been putting movies into theaters for decades. Netflix, of course, eschews the theater with most films, but it is nevertheless able to stack its films with fantastic casts.
That fact is evident in “The Thursday Murder Club,” which premiered on the streamer on Thursday, Aug. 28. The movie stars Pierce Brosnan as retired union leader Ron Ritchie, Helen Mirren as former spy Elizabeth Best, Ben Kingsley as psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif, and Celia Imrie as retired nurse Joyce Meadowcroft. Jonathan Pryce also stars as Elizabeth’s husband Stephen, and there are plenty of other familiar faces sprinkled through the film as well.
“The Thursday Murder Club” sees Ron, Elizabeth, Ibrahim, and Joyce settled into a comfortable retirement home, with lots of time on their hands. They’ve taken to solving murder mysteries as a pastime, but when a real-life murder occurs directly in their midst, they’re thrust into the role of serious sleuths to try and track down the killer.
Thus far, the movie has received a 75% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a 58 score on Metacritic, which indicates mixed or average reviews. The picture painted is of a movie that may not be winning a large number of Oscars, but is nevertheless well worth the time of the average mystery lover. Read more from the critics themselves below!
Watch a trailer for ‘The Thursday Murder Club’:
Do critics like ‘The Thursday Murder Club’?
Jocelyn Noveck | Associated Press
There’s a sadder undertone that provides some grounding here. Elizabeth’s husband — poignantly played by Jonathan Pryce — is in the early stages of dementia, a fact Elizabeth is keeping from him… It’s a message that even if our main protagonists seem healthy and active, they’re at a stage in life where every day is a bit more precarious. “Cherish the good moments,” the friend tells Elizabeth. It’s a good message, overall, for the movie. The script could certainly be sharper, the comedy more clever. But for two hours on Netflix, Coopers Chase is rather a comfy place to be, with some moments to cherish.
Matt Goldberg | The Wrap
Columbus feels like he’s wildly overshooting his mark here, losing anything immediate or personable in favor of rich interiors and famous names. The underlying idea here of, “Oh, these elderly pensioners are solving murders at their retirement community; isn’t that quaint?” gets lost when you’ve got two Oscar winners and a former James Bond on the case. What’s more confusing is to then take these great actors and give them almost nothing to do. “The Thursday Murder Club” is largely a plot machine with only glancing nods to ideas about aging, losing friends and loved ones to dementia or hospice, and the encroaching loneliness of the twilight years. Columbus wants to keep everything cheeky and quaint, and so there’s rarely a moment for pathos or a deeper consideration of why these four people would want to solve a murder.
Gemma Wilson | Seattle Times
Despite all the murders, there’s very little evil present in this story, and what evil does exist is of the silly, mustache-twirling variety. (Tennant, in particular, is so very, very good when he’s being awful.) In the end, once The Club has unraveled all of this mystery’s many (conveniently and coincidentally) interwoven threads, the conclusion seems to be edging toward nuance — then immediately changes course, plopping us back into a happily-ever-after predicated on black-and-white thinking about right and wrong…The satisfaction of a cozy mystery doesn’t always come exclusively from a complex puzzle solved; it also comes from justice done and, ideally, comeuppance savored. Despite being beautifully made, this tepid, moralizing story denies us any of those pleasures. Rude.
Maggie Lovitt | Collider
Like the novel, The Thursday Murder Club is a very straightforward mystery that some viewers will be able to solve in advance of the big reveal. The simplicity of the mystery allows audiences to focus more on the ensemble cast as they try to unravel the case, and that is where the best elements of the film lie. While The Thursday Murder Club isn’t a straightforward comedy, it has its fair share of funny moments that will elicit light chuckles. Mirren and Imrie have brilliant chemistry, and their sleuthing hijinks feel perfectly at home alongside the likes of Rosemary & Thyme’s dynamic crime-solving duo. Similarly, Brosnan and Kingsley’s shenanigans while outwitting DCI Hudson (Daniel Mays) provide quite a bit of levity and allow both actors to play against the types of roles they’ve made their careers out of.
Caroline Siede | AV Club
It’s lovely to see a comedy like this genuinely respect its aging protagonists, even if it still makes jokes about their inability to answer a smartwatch call or open a PDF. If The Thursday Murder Club has a central flaw, it’s that it’s more affable than laugh-out-loud funny or especially clever. In that way, it winds up feeling more like an appetizer than a full meal. In fact, with such an appealing heroine and such an engaging yet underexplored world, you could easily imagine The Thursday Murder Club as a supersized pilot to an ongoing series where the gang solve a new crime each week. Given that Osman has already published three sequels with another installment on the way, there could very well be a film franchise plan in the works too. If so, this debut entry makes the case for keeping your Thursdays free to join.
Stephanie Zacharek | Time
The best thing about The Thursday Murder Club is that this isn’t a story about people who “used to be” anything. They may be retired, but their former professions are still alive within them—our life’s work is part of what makes us who we are. The story also makes allowances for those who aren’t as able-bodied, or sound of mind, as our four protagonists are. Elizabeth’s husband is an accomplished historian—played by Jonathan Pryce—who’s slipping into dementia. He has good days and bad days, and Elizabeth rolls with them. If you’re looking for a realistic depiction of what it’s like to live with, and care about, a person with dementia, this movie isn’t it—but it’s not trying to be. Rather, it’s an acknowledgement, albeit a muted one, that aging isn’t for the faint of heart. All the more reason to face every day—and not just Thursday—as an adventure.
Caryn James |The Hollywood Reporter
At times the film nods at its own familiarity. When Joyce and Elizabeth take a bus to the police station to get Donna’s help, Joyce excitedly says, “I feel like we’re in one of those Sunday night dramas about two bright-eyed, feisty old lady detectives outsmarting the police at every turn. Do you feel like that?” In response, Elizabeth says, “No. And never use the words bright-eyed, feisty old ladies in my presence again.” Mirren delivers that dialogue so acidly she cuts through the feistiness. But of course knowing you’re dealing with clichés doesn’t make those clichés vanish, and the film only glancingly indulges in any meta cleverness. Instead it leans into the plot twists with more murder and multiple red herrings.
Nick Schager | The Daily Beast
While the proceedings’ plotting is twisty-turny, the action is too sitcom-y by half, and much of that is due to its simplistic and wooden dialogue. Brosnan and Kingsley are particularly impacted by the tepid writing, which even their energetic line readings can’t enliven. A punch-up would have done wonders for the material; as it stands, it’s passable if lacking the spry wit and cleverness it needs….Still, if The Thursday Murder Club doesn’t totally live up to its illustrious cast, it does establish a template that could easily be improved upon in subsequent installments. After all, if the streaming revolution has taught us anything, it’s that there’s an insatiable appetite for stories about murder and mayhem—and in the right screenwriting hands, Mirren, Brosnan, Kingsley and the rest of their compatriots might very well make a winning over-65 team.
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