Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan & Ben Kingsley starrer film is fun, sharp and yet predictable – Firstpost

Welcome to ‘The Thursday Murder Club’, where four retired people dig up an old unsolved murder mystery. The film truly gives you ideas too on how to lead your retired life with a small group of friends and how to keep yourself relevant and physically active. When I say a small group of friends, it means just four of five because anything more than six friends is a ‘crowd’ and there is no bond.

Based on the novel by
Richard Osman, sometimes you may feel the movie to be slow, but then all of a sudden there will be a burst of energy that you just cannot miss. Netflix’s The Thursday Murder Club is about Coopers Chase, a British retirement community, which is very different from a regular retirement group. Their grey cells just like their grey hair are always ticking and their spirits are always high just like their pulse rate.

The movie starts with the group discussing a murder that took place in 1973. The Thursday Murder Club features Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie and the best part is the entire look of the film that took place mostly in a beautiful stately home. Though Richard Osman’s book is solid, there are places where the film falters.

Unlike the novel, the film is hugely predictable where each clue is presented in a very non-exciting way. The performances of Ben Kingsley as Ibrahim Asif and Helen Mirren as Elizabeth Best are again extraordinary. But Pierce Brosnan could have done a little better considering his huge experience in the thriller genre.

The luxury retirement home makes you believe that this is the life every retired person must lead because you are never really alone and you have your favourite group of friends who are from the same age-group. And most importantly you have a darn good-life even when you are old. The four old people rapidly move through cold cases until a dead body turns up on their own doorstep. They call themselves The Thursday Murder Club.

The police initially underestimate the ability of these oldies though each one of them in the group had an illustrious career before retirement. Brosnan’s Ron Ritchie was a union leader, Kingsley’s Ibrahim Arif was a psychiatrist, Imrie’s Joyce Meadowcroft was a nurse, and Mirren’s Elizabeth Best was with international affairs. The best performances were definitely by Helen Mirren and Ben Kingsley, rest were just bland.

Rating: 3 out of 5

WATCH the trailer of Netflix ‘The Thursday Murder Club’ Movie here: