There's little in the way of actual comedy in "The Thursday Murder Club," debuting on Netflix just a few days ago, which is curious as it considers itself one. It's more of a lightweight dramatic detective film, if that is such a genre, with a ludicrous plot that I suppose counts as a comedy.
We're introduced to Joyce (Celia Imrie), a newly retired nurse now living at Cooper's Chase, the most unbelievably swanky retirement village you'll ever see. She stumbles into what she thinks it's the puzzle room, only to witness vintage crime scene photos strung up surrounded by fellow retirees: Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), Ron (Pierce Brosnan) and Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley). They belong to the titular "Thursday Murder Club," working through old cold-case files every Thursday I think. The film isn't terribly clear if they do this just once a week, especially since they work night and day once the co-owner of the place Tony Curran (Geoff Bell) turns up dead early on in the runtime.
He's found bludgeoned in his house not long after a disagreement with business partner Ian Ventham (David Tennant), who wants to demolish the place and put in condos or something. Ian is immediately named suspect number one, but that's less to do with effective detective work by local DCI Chris Hudson, played with a sweet tooth by Daniel Mays and much (much, much, much...) more by the amateur gang of aging sleuths.
Their liaison is a plucky rookie cop named Donna (Naomi Ackie), who visited the home earlier on the day of the (first) murder to discuss the importance of locking your doors and windows. Fortunately, that is one of just a handful of geriatric jokes, the rest being few and far between. There's actually far more would-be tender moments about aging, ranging from dementia to hospice care, and these scenes I presume come with the territory, but the script by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote have no interest in dealing with the true horrors of getting older. Of course, all this could be a result of the book of the same name by Richard Osman, but as I have never read it, your guess is as good as mine.
There's more of course, more characters, plot points and developments, but it's a mystery so I need to do my critical duty and keep some things close to my chest. The big reveal, however, is laborious and ridiculous, dependent on way too many coincidences, hunches and lucky guesses to be satisfying or even logical.
Fortunately, the excellent cast is fantastic and totally game for this material, striking exactly the right tone between serious thriller and goofy parody, and it's fun as the audience to see such famous actors and actresses having what clearly is a good time.
The crisp direction from Chris Columbus keeps the plot moving along at a steady clip, letting the Cooper's Chase become a character of its own; it's grandiose halls, fields and architecture seemingly stretching on for miles. I mean, it's all completely preposterous that it'd be so posh, but hey, it's a movie where Helen Mirren infiltrates the United Kingdom police department and quite literally solves multiple crimes in the span of a week.
If the whole affair plays like an extended episode of Murder, She Wrote, then so be it; it's to film's benefit that I quite like that show
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