Il club dei delitti del giovedì

Greetings again from the darkness. This is the type of movie that almost begs to be criticized, while at the same time, deserves to be enjoyed for being exactly what it tries to be. Author Richard Osman now has five books in this series, and the first has been adapted by co-writers Katy Brand (GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE, 2022) and Suzanne Heathcote ("Fear the Walking Dead"). It's directed by Chris Columbus, known for HOME ALONE (1990), MRS DOUBTFIRE (1993) and a couple of the Harry Potter movies. These are professionals who know how to entertain ... and just as importantly, they know how to cast.

Take two Oscar winners, a former James Bond, a few British acting stalwarts, and add in a stunning English countryside manor and a murder mystery, and the result is low-key, crowd-pleasing entertainment (even if it panders a bit to its target audience). The setting is Cooper Chase, a scrumptious estate serving as a much-desired retirement home. Hobbies among the residents include the expected crafts, archery, crosswords, sudoku, jigsaw puzzling, and various committees. The most unusual is the Thursday Murder Club, where Elizabeth (Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren), Ron (former 007 Pierce Brosnan), and Ibrahim (Oscar winner Sir Ben Kingsley) meet up to discuss an open police case provided by Elizabeth's now comatose ex-cop friend.

It doesn't take long for new resident Joyce (Celia Imrie, THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, 2011) to be accepted into the club, where her nursing experience perfectly complements the diverse skills of former union leader Ron, former psychiatrist Ibrahim, and the mysteriously clever Elizabeth (whose background takes a while to come to light). Greedy owner Ian Ventham (David Tennant) wants to transition the home into luxury condos, and this irritates the residents while putting a spotlight on the other two owners, Tony Curran (Geoff Bell) and Bobby Tanner (Richard E Grant).

When the murder occurs, the TMC springs into action with a "real" case. If they can solve it, they may even save Cooper Chase for all residents. The story unfolds in the manner of most whodunits, and our attention is on the main characters as well as others who come into play: Stephen (Jonathan Pryce) is Elizabeth's dementia-stricken husband, DCI Chris Hudson (Daniel Mays) doesn't appreciate the talents of TMC, while his assistant, Officer Donna de Freitas (Naomie Ackie) certainly does.

The clues, the research, and the disclosure of mastermind Elizabeth's past are all fun to watch, and Joyce's obsession with baking fancy cakes provides a necessary distraction at times. Fifteen-time Oscar nominee Thomas Newman provides the score, and we also get a bit of T Rex ("Bang a Gong"), a Springsteen 'The River' t-shirt, and a finale featuring an on-the-nose Cat Stevens' "Oh Very Young". One blink and you'll miss it one-liner occurs when Stephen tells his wife, "You look like the Queen". Gray cinema murder mystery is definitely having a moment thanks to "Only Murders in the Building", the "Matlock" reboot, and the recently announced reboot of "Murder She Wrote." It's interesting to note that Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, and Geoff Bell were all key players in the recent "MobLand", a much darker limited series. I'm sure Dame Helen Mirren is enjoying the resurgence ... just don't call her "feisty".

Opens on Netflix beginning August 28, 2025.

If they continue with the other books, they need to make them a series. This movie had everything it needed to be a standout, except a good script. Even if I hadn't read the books I think it would feel rushed. There's just no real build up to the solution. It's very abrupt. Looking at the credits for the 2 writers it's not surprising the script is subpar. Neither has written anything outstanding. Having read the books it's even worse. To fit the limited time frame they made too many changes and oversimplified the plot. Additionally, with a murder mystery series you have to take time to build the characters and their relationships. With this type of mystery, 2 hours just isn't enough time to do either. I was left wondering if they spent too much of the budget on the cast and didn't have enough left to do justice to the story. I'm hoping they learn from the mistake and make the next one a series, or at least a much longer movie. With the one killer saying it was an accident, they could still do a course correction to include the character in the future as is done in the books. But looking at the ratings they may not continue at all. I'll never understand why Hollywood does this. They secure the rights to a popular book with a built in audience and then proceed to alienate that audience by not sticking to the source material. How does that make sense?

What happened to the flirty Joyce from the book?! Celia Imrie is a brilliant casting for Joyce (as were nearly all the main characters - jury is still out on Pierce Brosnan as Ron), but it all felt a bit lost in translation to screen. The character of Bogdan was far away from the man written in the books, as was Donna. The film was still watchable and entertaining enough, however I think lovers of the book series will feel disappointed that the film failed to capture the same spark that Richard Osman wrote.

The book got me out of a reading slump because I loved it so much and is so well written, so obviously I was very excited for this film. Before cast had been announced I had thought Helen mirren and Ben Kingsley would be great in this. So I ended up feeling a little disappointed by film overall.

As others have said, the ending felt rushed, missing out parts of the book that would have given you as a viewer the satisfaction of finding out the reasons of why someone had done something.

It is a typical case of the book is better than the film and I imagine if you haven't read the book then the film is great.

I haven't read the books which I glad about as I went into this blind. Sometimes I film that if you read the books you can't watch the film for what it is !

But a film with Helen , pierce , sir Ben and others can't be bad!

It's capture everything English and a retirement I want to be in when I am older!