Thursday Murder Club review — stars a-plenty crowd out some of the plot in this easy to enjoy film, but would a series have been a better choice?

To avoid any confusion, let’s make it clear there’s plenty to enjoy in the Netflix / Chris Columbus film adaptation of Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. And yes, we expect more to follow and look forward to watching them. There’s also a place in the portfolio for films as well as series. But did the powers that be make the right decision here?

Thursday Murder Club review — the basics

Parking thoughts on series vs film, let’s look at what we have. It’s two hours of escapist entertainment with a great cast (Helen Mirren, Jonathan Pryce, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan, Tom Ellis, Celia Imrie, David Tennant and Richard E Grant to name but eight) — but in only two hours, the film ends up largely zooming in on Helen Mirren’s character, leaving some of the others marginalised and many others, particularly in the police, left almost as clichés with no character development. Add a sumptuous setting of the retirement community of the (it seems) mostly well off and middle class, senior citizens running rings round the constabulary, and a few murders and there’s little room for much of the actual story.

To be a little simplistic — Celia Imrie’s character seems to spend all her time making cakes to the detriment of anything else, Tom Ellis’s character has secrets tamely revealed in the world’s least plausible police interrogation… we wonder — does having such a strong cast mean most get little chance to shine?

As to the story, there’s an historic murder (the interest of the club themselves), then the murder of a dodgy developer. Meanwhile, as Tennant’s character gets less and less likeable and threatens to destroy the community for profit, we get another murder. From this point on (roughly midway) the film gets more focussed and the intricacies of various murders old and new (via some plot short cuts) do finally present an interesting puzzle to solve, coupled with observations on the infirmities often coming with age and the difficult decisions people face in these situations.

So, film or series?

There’s a large extent to which this is almost just a Helen Mirren film, and we do feel the rich palette of characters might be better treated in a series. Practically this would clearly up the cost, given the number of big names on the list. Then again, Netflix has a lot of series on its books and perhaps it’s simpler to just have the occasional big film. Add to that the (inevitable?) sequels we may well get, and each becomes an opportunity to cater for the large cast. We shall see.