I chose to take on The Thursday Murder Club solely based on its cast. Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie appeared to make a perfect team, and I couldn’t imagine anything Mirren does to be anything other than fabulous, and I was right. The Thursday Murder Club is every bit as funny and charming as I thought, but also filled with twists to keep you guessing.
The Thursday Murder Club is based on the best-selling book by Richard Osman and follows a team of retirees who just aren’t content with the standard retirement filled with painting, relaxing and jigsaw puzzles. This group, coined The Thursday Murder Club, finds cold murder cases from the past and puts their expertise together to solve these unsolvable cases. However, in the middle of a case, a part-owner of their retirement community is murdered, and the team puts their skills to the test on a live case.
Part of what I love the most in The Thursday Murder Club is the constant anonymity surrounding Elizabeth (Helen Mirren) and her particular set of skills, so to speak. Her distaste for the other “regular” retirees and her reluctance to bring in anyone from their outside circle make for a lot of hilarious moments, but also a genuine curiosity until the official reveal. The writing team did well to keep things light but mysterious, and Mirren can make anything believable.
“The Thursday Murder Club is every bit as funny and charming as I thought, but also filled with twists to keep you guessing.”
Mirren wasn’t the only cast member to shine. And I am pretty sure every English actor on the planet was in this movie. As I said before, our main cast was stacked. What was most interesting, though, was how each of the four main members really balanced each other out and brought something to the team. This can be accredited to the original author, but the cast also makes it feel authentic and often quite funny.
Helen Mirren was Elizabeth, the fierce but mysterious team member who doesn’t take “no” for an answer. Pierce Brosnan was Ron, the rebel activist/union rep who stands up for what he believes in. Ben Kingsley was Ibrahim, a former psychologist with a knack for understanding people. And Celia Imrie was Joyce, the newest member of the group, who gets caught up in the excitement of it all, but brings her former duties as a nurse to help the team with a wound in another case.
The supporting cast in The Thursday Murder Club is also nothing to scoff at. Tom Ellis, David Tennant, Geoff Bell, Richard E. Grant, Joseph Marcell, Paul Freeman, Martin Bishop…these are all faces I have seen time and time again, and to see them all in one place was so much fun. Director Chris Columbus (various Harry Potter movies, The Help, Rent) or at least the casting director must have called in a lot of favours.
“The Thursday Murder Club was two hours of laughter and mystery.”
Of course, there has to be an air of mystery surrounding a group of retirees acting as detectives, getting involved in police business and the like. But The Thursday Murder Club does a good job of tying up any loose ends without too much doubt. There were a few times when I thought I knew who the murderer was, but I was wrong. The film also does a good job of pulling all the characters back together in ways I didn’t think would matter.
Something I constantly found myself paying attention to was the sets in The Thursday Murder Club. In the retirement community, especially, every room was filled with so much detail. Not a shelf or ounce of wall space was left undecorated. Not only is it fully decorated, but it is also styled to each individual character with real purpose. Also props to…well, the props department. Joyce’s cakes and the numerous bouquets of flowers looked beautiful.
The Thursday Murder Club was two hours of laughter and mystery, and without too many spoilers, it looks like it could be gearing up for a sequel. I really enjoyed every minute of the film, and I will certainly be on board if they release another.
The Thursday Murder Club releases on Netflix on August 28, 2025.
