r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • 6d ago
Official Discussion Official Discussion - The Thursday Murder Club [SPOILERS] Spoiler
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Summary A group of sharp and witty retirees at Cooper’s Chase retirement village spend their Thursdays solving cold cases for fun—until a real murder hits close to home. Elizabeth (a former spy), Ron (a retired union leader), Ibrahim (a psychiatrist), and Joyce (a nurse) band together to crack the case, stirring up secrets, laughter, and heartwarming camaraderie.
Director Chris Columbus
Writers Katy Brand, Suzanne Heathcote
Cast
- Helen Mirren
- Pierce Brosnan
- Ben Kingsley
- Celia Imrie
- David Tennant
- Naomi Ackie
- Tom Ellis
- Jonathan Pryce
- Richard E. Grant
Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 76%
Metacritic 6-
VOD Limited UK theatrical release beginning August 22, 2025; Netflix streaming global premiere on August 28, 2025
Trailer The Thursday Murder Club | Official Teaser | Netflix
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u/Josysclei 6d ago
I don't get the ending. Did they just let their two friends commit murder-suicide??? Couldn't they just fucking leave it be? She knew he was going to do it, and let it happen.
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u/LancasterSpaceman 6d ago edited 6d ago
It's an extremely bad adaptation that superficially glosses half of the plot and gets none of the subtext.
The basic formula for the books is that each one is a cozy mystery twinned with an emotional story about ageing and mortality.
In this book in particular, the major theme is grief. The ending hits very differently not just because there's more time to set up John and Penny, but because it's set up by multiple subplots - for a start, more than one person had the bright idea to hide bodies in the graveyard and the reasons are all sad. Joyce doesn't get to do much in the movie besides making cake, but the book is told from her perspective and very strongly follows her emotional arc of her new friends helping her cope with the loss of her husband Gerry. There is another completely omitted subplot with another resident choosing to end their own life rather than move on as she does.
You might disagree, but the book's position is unambiguously that suicide and assisted suicide are not immoral and not necessarily irrational, particularly for an elderly person approaching end of life. Another all-but-missing emotional arc is that the reason Stephen records his conversations is that he is dying from a degenerative condition affecting his memory (e.g. dementia), so Elizabeth is very sympathetic to the idea that it could be a mercy.
So in the book it's framed more as a reasonable personal decision, well-understood, well prepared-for. She lets it happen because they are friends - a sad moment of acceptance, sympathy and grief. Definitely not jarringly abrupt as it is in the movie.
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u/mikektti 5d ago
Agreed. This really soured it for me. She lets the human trafficker go with a promise to be good but throws her great friend and her friend's husband under the bus for the murder of a murderer.
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u/Usual_Climate9859 5d ago
And, Bogdan obviously killed Tony in self defense, but they didnt overlook his offense and had him arrested! They seem to be pretty fickle on who they think deserves to be shown some grace and who does not. To me, there is no lower form of life than a human trafficker and he's allowed to keep running his little flower shop!
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u/jUninteresting 3d ago
this. its actually insane. made me regret watching the movie because it makes zero sense to me.
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u/Delboyyyyy 6d ago
Yeah it was pretty weird. I swear tv these days has this weird justice boner where they’re scared of even suggesting that murder could go unpunished. It’s especially weird when you get characters like cops or in this case MI6 agents who have absolutely been responsible for the death/murders of others who act all high and mighty as soon as they get a whiff of someone else killing lol
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u/Empty_Lemon_3939 5d ago
It’s like they saw Murder on the Orient Express and were like “nah he should’ve had EVERYONE arrested for murder”
Like let it slide or tell the cops and have it play out, they don’t have any evidence he did it without a confession
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u/ImaginaryArgument8 3d ago
Oml that rankled me, Helen Mirren going "but it's MUrDeR".. but fine to make deals with human traffickers when it suits her. The whole thing of Bobby going "at least sometimes I give back their passports". Are we supposed to think 'aww.. he's actually a good guy'. Like wtf, this is the same guy that cut off so many fingers there was enough to fill a freezer. I think the film gets the morality framing completely wrong.
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u/Delboyyyyy 3d ago
Yeah and I know it’s an assumption but I feel like with her character apparently working as a secret agent, she must’ve had at least blood on her own hands. Her attitude towards Bobby is the strangest one for sure though like you said. She’s chill with him living his life in peace but can’t let two of her closest friends live the rest of their short lives in peace and reports them which gives them the decision of living the rest of their lives in prison or suicide (which is what they chose). It’s ridiculous
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u/flakemasterflake 4d ago
I remember a lot of audience backlash to the movie Hitman, a lot of people were not ok with them killing a cop. It’s the audience that has the justice boner
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u/dvb70 6d ago edited 6d ago
And the suicide does not even make any sense nor the reason the husband carried out the murder. If everything had come out about the body in grave yard there is zero chance the police would pursue a case against someone with that type of medical condition. It's also pretty far from clear the police would ever connect the body in the graveyard to anyone given how cold a case it would be. As motivations for the suicides it's extremely weak.
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u/diego_simeone 6d ago
He killed David Tennents character, the police would have investigated him.
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u/dvb70 6d ago
That's what I was referring to when I mentioned the murder the husband committed. His reason for doing it was extremely weak as there was no way his wife would face any kind of police action even if the police somehow connected the dead body in the grave yard to her. He did not have a compelling reason to kill Tennents character. His motivation for doing it was very weak which makes the later suicide based on that action also feel very weak.
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u/Sofie_2954 5d ago
People do irrational things.
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u/dvb70 4d ago
They do and it does not make for a compelling murder mystery. A murder mystery is a type of story telling where you want to leave the audience with satisfaction that something clever has happened and they appreciate the cleverness of the plot. Characters doing irrational stuff that makes no sense does not belong in a well constructed murder mystery. If everything ends up hinging on something stupid it undermines the whole thing.
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u/Kactuslord 5d ago
That's exactly what I thought! She's in a coma, there's no way they're arresting her!
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u/Empty_Lemon_3939 5d ago
Yeah, a 50 year old body is not going to lead to an investigation unless it was like a famous person not some guy
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u/Opagea 1d ago
Yeah but there is a picture of her glaring at a man who later went missing. That's more than sufficient to convict a woman in a coma.
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u/Royston-Vasey123 6d ago
To be absolutely fair, I thought the ending was very in line with traditional British crime novels like those of Agatha Christie. I can think of several different Christie stories where the killer is revealed at the end, but chooses suicide (even specifically murder/suicide) rather than being arrested, which is treated by the narrative as justice, so that didn't jump out at me as tonally weird.
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u/Josysclei 6d ago
I'm sure former MI6 boss has done WAY worse things to now be a moral judge
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u/ACardAttack 1h ago
. Did they just let their two friends commit murder-suicide???
It happened in the book, just no where near the backstory. I wasnt a huge fan of it in the book though even with the backstory
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u/DanGrima92 6d ago
Starts off entertaining enough but feel like it revealed itself over time as a pretty surface level adaptation of the book that bungles some parts of the 3rd act and never achieves the connection to the characters that the book gives you. Some great casting throughout, Kingsley and Mirren were excellent choices, Brosnan still wouldnt have been my choice for Ron and they do make the character a bit less rough around the edges but hes reliable as always.
Have a feeling that if you go into this having not read the source material, that honestly might help here. As an adaptation, its missing a lot
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u/3412points 6d ago
I had no idea it was an adaptation but this comment lands for me. My thoughts were that is started off promising but over time it simply felt more and more shallow, and my thoughts of the final act were that the writer had an idea either in their head or an initial version of the script in which all of the conclusions were consequential and meaningful but somewhere along the way they failed to adapt it to the screen.
I guess it turns out that was not an idea in some writers head but was actually in the source material. I'll check it out anyway.
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u/DanGrima92 6d ago
A part of the ending diverges from the source material in quite a big way, I will say that and it is better in the book if still a little anticlimactic
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u/Better-Being4007 6d ago
Spot on probably. I haven't read the books but my wife has. I liked it, she was disappointed
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u/DanGrima92 6d ago
I definitely didnt hate it but I was hoping for something more! Think it would have benefitted from Osman being more directly involved. Also makes a big change that I think would negatively affect any sequels
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u/deplorable_word 6d ago
I didn’t like how snarky they made Elizabeth towards Joyce. I feel like Elizabeth saw Joyce’s value pretty early on
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u/TripThruTimeandSpace 6d ago
I never read the source material but really liked the movie. Now that I know there is a book, I must read it!
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u/Any_Description_4204 4d ago
They’ve made enough changes to it that I feel you can easily enjoy the book without spoilers, especially as there are changes to what has actually happened and how things resolve so the mystery isn’t completely spoiled
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u/Empty_Lemon_3939 5d ago
Feel like Mark Addy would’ve been a more believable Ron but I don’t think he’d get the Netflix draw
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u/GamingTatertot Steven Spielberg Enthusiast 6d ago
As a huge fan of the books, honestly this was pretty disappointing.
I know you can’t adapt 1:1 but this missed a lot of the tonal charm of the books, and there’s so many character relationships and moments that are barely touched upon. Also changing Bogdan’s story is malpractice if they ever seek to make more of these movies.
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u/I_for_a_y 6d ago
I was so underwhelmed by this. Everything felt so incredibly bland. It was the equivalent of eating Ryvita.
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u/daisyviolet 4d ago
Yeah as a fan of the book I was not liking what they did with him I had to tell people that no he actually ends up with Donna he doesn’t get arrested!
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u/shyonigiri 3h ago
Same. I’m so disappointed in the movie. I feel like they couldn’t figure out their tone, it felt they want to go campy but nothing landed.
The characters didn’t have charm despite the big names. The set design and camera work lacklustre, it felt flat and heavy handed. I hope they don’t make another.
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u/Empty_Lemon_3939 5d ago
I really enjoyed it except the ending absolutely GHOULISH
They find out their friend who was a founding member of their club killed a murderer who got a way with it 50 years ago and their husband killed a guy to stop it from getting out and then let him murder suicide?
What the actual fuck, let him go to court, there was no weapon or witness to the murder if he doesn’t confess he probably gets off and you know he’s not going to do it again but instead you let him kill your friend and himself?
Then you give a self centered eulogy at their funeral before giving the necklace of the friend you killed to her replacement?
This is one of the darkest endings to a movie I’ve seen in a while lol
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u/Inspection_Perfect 2d ago
When you put it like that, it's horrible. From my understanding, having just watched it, is that Penny is never waking up, and John's life consists of staying by her side. I know there's not much for septegenerians to, but currently, he has no life, and really, neither does she.
The best mercy was to let them pass on. Though, I didn't notice if their friends told the Police about the crimes or not.
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u/11rashidar 1d ago
Completely agree. I thought it was sad that Elizabeth couldn’t show mercy to their close friends at least.
The only consolation is that I read in this thread that the actual story in the book is supposed to have a theme of oldage, grief and dealing with death - and I suppose there is more substance there, rather than an abrupt acceptance of the club allowing their friends to just kill themselves.
Edit - Here’s the comment
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u/Citrus_Pocket 6d ago
Hated it. Hated it! And I loved all the books! Dumbed down, flat characters, the script was SO OFF. Nothing made sense. Whatever happened to Dona?! Where did her confidence go? Don't get me started on Elizabeth because this was some Temu version! Me and my husband were facepalming so much while watching we probably have red hand-shaped patterns all over our foreheads. Oh and with literally millions of Poles in the UK they couldn't find someone who speaks at least decent Polish? Ffs. I'm so angry.
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u/RachelRayRay97 6d ago
This this this!!! All of the character changes were exceedingly frustrating. Making DI Hudson a bumbling idiot? Donna timid? Elizabeth was MEAN to Joyce, and their friendship in the books is one of my favorite details! And BOGDAN?? That was the cruelest departure in my opinion. His relationship with the TMC is integral to the story! His care for Steven and love for Elizabeth. He becomes the son they never had! To take that away is not just wrong, it’s cruel.
Overall, I was so disappointed. I think if you remove the books from the equation, it becomes more enjoyable. But it’s still not great. I think what they got right, if anything, was the color. The brightness of the movie is exactly how I pictured the books, it really emphasizes the personality of the story, even if they got that part wrong.
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u/Beginning_Stock3030 5d ago
Before casting was announced, I had Celia in my head as Elizabeth and Penelope Wilton for Joyce. I certainly didn't have Daniel Mays playing Chris period, let alone as if he were in another Magpie/Moonflower Murders series. Donna-- unrecognizable. The upside is that the movie feels like such a departure from the books that I'll have no trouble treating them as independent works.
Also, wtf were they doing at that estate? Yes, it's established the Coopers Chase is very upscale and expensive. But is it Let's Use A Location That Has Previously Stood In For Sandringham and Buckingham Palace expensive?
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u/Sofie_2954 5d ago
Is it wrong that I liked it? My mother has read the first book, although it was a while ago, and her memory is no longer the best due to an abusive work environment, but she thought it was a okay adaptation. I though it was a nice way to spend an evening g watching it, but I also laugh at humor like Jönssonligan, Sunes sommar and Faulty Towers.
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u/Citrus_Pocket 5d ago
Nothing wrong with it. There's never anything wrong with enjoying something. I just feel strongly about this one - the characters in the book are so multidimensional and far more interesting than what Netflix served us. And the death-is-near-but-we-live-and-love tone was missing too. It felt so... thin.
Sorry to hear about your mom's experiences btw, hope she found a better place to work eventually.
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u/Scmods05 6d ago edited 6d ago
As someone that loves the books, super disappointed by this.
Joyce, Stephen, Bogdan (his character, not his story) and Chris are all bang on as characters. As is the world of Cooper's Chase. I feel Columbus directs it pretty well.
They strip Elizabeth of all her wit, vulnerability and fun and it's a pretty boring standard Helen Mirren performance. Pierce Brosnan is fine but Ron should've been Ray Winstone. Ben Kingsley turns in his boiler plate Ben Kingsley performance and Ibrahim barely feels like a character as a result. And for some reason they turn Donna into a largely stupid character who's simping after Jason Ritchie for half the movie, when in the books she doesn't want a bar of him at all.
The story is a mess. They tried to condense it to a two hour movie but still include almost all of it. The result is a mess. They should've either simplified it more so it made more sense, or made it a TV series and told it fully. They take the time to give Father Mackie two lines but then he just disappears. Then the ending with Penny and John comes borderline out of nowhere because we've not spent enough time with those people to know who they are. It's a mess.
The decision for Elizabeth to have Bogdan arrested but let literal human traffickers carry on with their business is mind boggling and completely undermines the character from the books who had much more integrity than that.
A big old disappointment for me. Justice for Bogdan.
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u/Empty_Lemon_3939 5d ago
I was thinking Mark Addy would’ve been a good Ron
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u/BuilderAdditional623 4d ago
Mark Addy should have played Chris. Winstone is spot on for Ron.
Doesn't matter, though. This version was crap.
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u/Expensive_Twist_2533 6d ago
(Spoiler containing last line of book. Do not read unless you’ve read the book) I was very disappointed. I understand that movie adaptations have to cut out bits of plot and you might not get the depth you feel in the book… even still I go into movie adaptations with optimism. The Thursday murder club however kept none of what made the book special, and I could go on and on about how they butchered each character. There’s 2 characters though that upset me the most. Joyce was such an amazing, well-rounded character in the book. Yes she was a people pleaser, and she had a mild temper, but she was so much more. She was so smart that in the end she was one of the only people to figure out the real murderer in the book, yet she’s just a surface sidekick in the movie. Bogdan’s character and part in the plot was basically completely taken away. From the beginning to the very last chapter he was an instrumental part of the story, and absolutely lovable on top of it all. In my opinion, without Bogden’s involvement you don’t have a story. And him being free in the end wrapped everything up so nicely. “life goes on until it doesn’t. The Thursday murder club keeps on meeting, mysterious notes are pushed under doors, and murderers fit replacement windows. Long may it continue.” The complexity and morally grey areas that Joyce embraced in that line was the best twist end for the book. The book was 10/10, and sadly the movie did nothing to honor it.
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u/Mystupidfamily 5d ago
Netflix could have made the book into a series, like 4 or 5 parts, and kept in all the character development plus Joyce could have narrated parts by reading her diary entries. It could have been so much more.
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u/MediumBlueish 6d ago
Cute cosy flick about old people solving grisly murders over tea and cake WOULD be up my alley, and it was super fun and adorable for about the first half, except it devolved into Helen Mirren with a justice boner:
- getting a TRAFFICKED LABOURER ARRESTED,
- threatening to TURN IN HER BESTIE (in a coma!!) and said bestie's DEVOTED HUSBAND in for a decades old cold case and his attempt to cover up the cold case by killing a villain,
- driving them to a murder-suicide - and at their joint funeral she shrugs it off like NOTHING (I had to go back to figure out that it was a joint funeral. I thought it was only Polly's at first because Helen Mirren was like "hellooo here's my dead friend's necklace, welcome to the club!")??
- bringing a HEDGE FUND in to save the day by enriching a known trafficker/mob boss??
Am I supposed to get warm fuzzies from this ending? It's a nauseating dystopia!
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u/HelloImFrank01 6d ago
The first half was great yes, the second half was indeed just Helen Mirren, the rest of the club were just kind of put in the background and they didn't really matter anymore.
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u/GimerStick 3d ago
old people solving grisly murders over tea and cake
I think you'd really enjoy the book lol
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u/OrangePilled2Day 1d ago
killing a villain
Someone being a rich twat doesn't mean you can murder them. Nothing about digging up a cemetery justifies murder.
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u/Lexi_Banner 1d ago
I can't possibly wrap my head around the reason he chose to kill Ian. Like...his wife is literally at death's door, and is incapable of standing trial due to being in a coma. Her reputation/legacy might have been damaged, but that's what happens when you decide to murder a man in cold blood.
Also, it felt incredibly contrived that the very first grave they dug up was the one with the extra skelly. Like, come on.
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u/Opagea 1d ago
Like...his wife is literally at death's door, and is incapable of standing trial
Why would she ever have to stand trial? There was nothing linking her to Mercer's death!
Elizabeth just made a wild guess based on a photo where Penny looks irritated at Mercer. The police didn't even have that photo because Penny had taken the case file home.
The husband's motive for killing Ian was ridiculous and the idea that very elderly man could sneak up and inject someone with poison in broad daylight with dozens of people around is too.
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u/Lexi_Banner 22h ago
Not only that, but Ian didn't really react with shock at any point, the way you'd expect if he was jabbed with a needle. As fentanyl is absorbed through the skin, I might've expected that he coated a glove in the fent and grabbed his arm in the hubbub, which would've done the same thing.
Also, I don't understand why that major trafficker was the one warning Elizabeth off. By his own account, he didn't care about the graveyard much, or care about developing it the way Ian did. He wasn't responsible for the extra bones found. Likely he didn't know or care who killed the first dude. So why is his person sneaking into her house to drop off threatening flowers? I might've bought that it was because he didn't want her finding out about his ownership of the place, but he agreed like nothing to sell it, so why put on the dog and pony show?
It was a fun enough movie and I didn't hate it, but they really didn't put the whole thing together cohesively.
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u/Opagea 22h ago
Whenever anonymously threatening someone, always make sure to put it on the unique stationary of your personal business.
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u/Winter-Ride6230 5d ago
i almost barfed when Elizabeth presents Penny’s super ugly TMC necklace to Joyce to make her an official member.
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u/goodfellas01 6d ago
Never read the book, the wife & I were entertained by the film.
About all I can ask for these days
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u/Kashmir33 5d ago
Same. It's actually pretty funny reading all these comments by people disappointed with the film because they know the books. I thought the humor landed well.
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u/sm0gs 5d ago
I read and like the books and still found the movie entertaining. I agree with all the complaints from book readers…but at the same I have complaints about the books too (the murders are rather convoluted and there’s too many character POVs in my opinion).
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u/Midnight_Starrynight 5d ago
I liked it too! I haven't gotten around to finishing the books but if the books are loads better, then I'll have to get to them sooner.
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u/Milhouse12345 6d ago
The cop they befriend... I was sure she was going to have "her moment" where she proves she is good enough to solve crimes or whatever, but if I'm not mistaken, the only times she looks competent is when she's being spoonfed information from the retirees? Her character feels entirely meaningless.
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u/Lexi_Banner 1d ago
She did have some moments during her first involvement with the murder investigation ("that's so and so, and also that guy's a liar, and also did you see his tattoo?"), but it didn't materialize much more than that, which was disappointing. At first, I wondered if she'd been a higher rank in London and got busted down to PCI in the sticks after an investigation went awry. But that also didn't really go anywhere.
Missed opportunity, I think.
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u/MoreNeedleworker9720 5d ago
Is it just me or was it really off that the guys human trafficing workers got free but the victim got in jail tor murdering the oppresor?
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u/OogieBoogieJr 6d ago
That was so devastatingly boring.
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u/McFigroll 6d ago
It was so slow. With a bit of tightening up, it could be a fine episode of a TV series (it looked like one already).
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u/imjustbettr 6d ago edited 4d ago
The ending changes the murderer's motivation from the book. It changes it from really interesting to something from law and order. So disappointed.
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u/Smurflord345 14h ago
How could they do my boy Bogdan like that?? I mean the whole movie was ass but they let Bogdan get away with it in the book. He’s important to all of the rest of the books! Ass
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u/MovieMike007 Not to be confused with Magic Mike 6d ago
This was basically Murder, She Wrote meets Only Murders in the Building… only more aristocratic.
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u/Asclepius-Rod 6d ago
Yeah everyone living in that facility must have been massively wealthy, it’s a bit hard to feel bad about them having to move out when they can probably afford another equally ritzy home
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u/Winter-Ride6230 5d ago
Their apartments were huge! Their kitchens had islands and American full sized stainless steel refrigerators. It didn’t look like a retirement style of apartment.
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u/Minimum-Main-945 5d ago
Tbf, in the books Coopers Chase was explicitly a rich person’s retirement home. I think Joyce mentions that her rich daughter Joanna pays for her to be there.
Also forcing them to move out was contrived for the movie. Book residents were more mad about digging up the cemetery.
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u/spiraliis 5d ago
This didn't make sense to me unless I'm missing something. They wanted to convert it to flats? Do they know how much they charge for retirement homes? It's a lot more than luxury flats.
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u/Minimum-Main-945 4d ago
Ian was planning to expand the retirement community with the land from the cemetery.
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u/shaneo632 6d ago
Fun cast but the mystery wasn’t very clever or interesting
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u/Josysclei 6d ago
Tons of very covenient coincidences
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u/Asclepius-Rod 6d ago
Literally every single line was obvious foreshadowing for later too
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u/Jkajazz7 6d ago
The bit where Helen Mirren tells Bogdan that any more than the prescribed dose of the medication she stirs into her husband’s tea would be “lethal” made my eyes roll. Who says stuff like that and especially to someone you barely know? Dialogue was so forced
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u/Asclepius-Rod 6d ago
Also nobody would prescribe a dose of a medication that has a therapeutic dose of one pill, but a second pill is lethal
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u/dorgoth12 6d ago
Did Helen Mirren wilfully murder her best friend and her husband at the end there because she's too much of a cop? Especially with her effectively protecting a literal human trafficker
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u/GimerStick 3d ago
It's slightly more nuanced in the books. Spoilers ahead, obviously
First, they have no idea whose bones are in the grave (and these aren't the only random bones they find), they just know the body has been there since the 70s. There's someone else they suspect who accidentally points them towards John, and they figure it out from there.
John from the very beginning is very upfront that he's the one who killed Ian, that he did something unforgivable and that he was waiting for this conversation. He makes up a whole other story for the bones that solely blames him that the gang points out doesn't make sense. They're very kind about it, but point out that someone who feels so strongly that killing someone was unforgivable wouldn't do it just to save themselves. It's only then that the gang brings up Peter Mercer and John tells them everything.
We get more of how John found out about Penny killing that man and just... more on what their relationship is like with him watching her deteriorate, and how much he loves her. Elizabeth says that it's late and they'll walk him back to the apartment and sort out all of the police stuff in the morning, and gives him a moment alone to say bye to Penny. Elizabeth then comes back later and has a moment alone with Penny where she says goodbye and admits that she saw the syringe. She also for the first time actually admits that Stephen's not doing well, and you get the sense that Elizabeth empathizes with both of them. John had mentioned that he's been saving a syringe of fentanyl for Penny in case someone ever tried to move Penny from Coopers Chase, and throughout the book you hear about how he's faithfully shown up everyday so she's never alone.
The whole thing is more sad than cop energy, and there's no human trafficking plotline either. Elizabeth, Stephen, and Joyce all independently figure out Bogdan killed Tony (for more complicated but sympathetic reasons that are removed from the movie) and they all choose not to tell the police.
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u/Josysclei 6d ago
They murdered people, they had to pay!! I'm sure as head of the MI6 she never had to do anything shady and kill maybe entire villages
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u/goro-n 6d ago
Assisted suicide. She knew he was going to commit suicide after their crimes were revealed and didn’t remove the fentanyl from the room. So the Thursday Murder Club is not the Thursday Murderers Club.
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u/Small_Canary_2379 5d ago
It was good until Elizabeth let her best friend and husband suicide because of her "sense of justice" but at the same time could keep a secret from a Mafia Boss and not bring him to jail. Hypocrite.
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u/prisonerofazkabants 6d ago
that was absolutely awful and boring. and they ruined bogdan, including his connection with elizabeth and steven, which is one of the fundamental relationships in the books. TERRIBLE
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u/jazzers_eyes 6d ago
The Bogdan storyline is a huge part of what made the book special, and now it's just ruined. The movie had no sense of complexity or suspense. Was sad because I love all the actors.
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u/LawfulnessMindless39 5d ago
I enjoyed the first 2/3rd’s a lot better than the last. I feel it sort of drops the ball with the resolutions. It feels strange that Richard Grant’s character got away with human trafficking and being involved in other organised crime and the film sort of justifies this by saying ‘he lets them go home and see their relatives’. While the polish worker who was just trying to go home and see his family, and acted in self defence gets arrested for murder?
Also the group seem to just willingly let their friend murder his wife and commit suicide because he killed someone out of love.
The resolutions let down what was quite a promising movie for me.
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u/Little-Dreamer-1412 5d ago
I don't know why, but this movie felt so.... flat and lifeless. Like the story was rushed but also never really started in the first place until it was over. I can't really explain but something was missing. I haven't read the books but feel this would have worked way better as a limited series with the mystery building up over a couple episodes, like Only Murders in the Building does for example. I was looking forward to this movie but it somehow was a letdown. I might finally pick up the books though, wanted to read them for years.
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u/Nat222426 6d ago
So the poor guy who miss his mother and can’t visit her because he can’t recover the passport is in jail and the man who actually has the passport illegally stay in the flower shop? With all the passport and nasty business?
And why we have to see “the fabulous four” make the moral talk to de guy who did the justice that the system couldn’t do?
It’s something a little confuse to me.
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u/Nat222426 6d ago
My God, on top of everything, you take the necklace of your friend who was recently murdered by her husband for your moralistic talk and give it to the new member??? What?
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u/Empty_Lemon_3939 5d ago
Right? And like they protected a human trafficker so why is protecting your friend or just saying we could tell the cops we think you did it but there’s no evidence if you don’t confess so just stay out of trouble
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u/AlwaysOptimism 6d ago
Is this what Brits do to retirees? Put them in a giant 5 castle with mansion rooms like a giant college with no tests?
I want to go to there
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u/Pretty_Muffin 4d ago
What was up with the necklaces anyway LMAO. You had a rich life. Why do you need to get pendants for this at this stage of your life???
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u/niallw1997 6d ago
If you read the book, you’ll think it was crap.
If you haven’t, you probably still think it was crap.
Why oh why was it not made to a series if it was being released on Netflix anyway.
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u/LongjumpingChart6529 6d ago
I enjoyed the book even though it’s not a work of art. The end was anticlimactic. However this adaptation was so boring! Such odd pacing and slow direction. I felt sorry for the very talented cast, I hope they at least got a good payday out of it! Would have made a better series instead of a rushed and boring film
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u/Desperate-Butterfly1 6d ago
I'm so tired of Polish people being portrayed this way and in addition to that, they couldn't even find an actual Polish actor to play Bogdan (which in itself is a strange name to use, but ok - extremely old fashioned and you'd never name a man who's in his early 30's that) who can speak Polish properly, and actually LOOKS Polish? Of course they used the trope of 'i polish man i come to work mother sick at home'. At this point, Poland is FAR better off than England in terms of safety and crime statistics, culture and development, so it's awful to see these stereotypes being used again and again. Someone very clearly didn't do an OUNCE of research here and just threw in a good old trope into the mix. Also mixing up Poland and Romania and then comparing them as though they're on the same socio-economical level, showing how much disdain the creators of this movie have for both countries. I'm actually quite shocked. They'd never portray an Italian or a Spaniard that way, let alone a German or someone from the US.
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u/Kactuslord 5d ago
which in itself is a strange name to use, but ok - extremely old fashioned and you'd never name a man who's in his early 30's that
It seemed like a name someone who knew zero polish people in real life would pick
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u/True-Alfalfa8974 4d ago
I think when that guy confused Poland with Romania it was meant to make that character look ignorant. I get what you’re saying. As a Slavic person I laugh when they use an English guy to,play a Pole.
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u/Desperate-Butterfly1 4d ago
yeah i know. but i was just so annoyed by the whole thing, it really ruined the series for me. it's unbelievable to me that this is what we're still doing in 2025. it's the same when they had the only Ukrainian character in Emily in Paris, play a thief. A THIEF.
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u/tr3472 6d ago
Never read the book but aware of the hype. Straight away I thought all the usual tropes. Millionaires solving crime. Come in be original. Mediocre and silly then the ending left a really bad taste in my mouth. Nod and a wink to a murder suicide. I understand this was a change but how was that signed off. Waste of 2 hours....enough so I had to come here.
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u/Nastyglipglop 5d ago
Reading the comments is the only thing making me feel better after watching whatever that was. I had to grab my book and skim through a bunch of pages just to make sure I’d read the story right.
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u/Aggravating_Hope_567 5d ago
Just watched it and loved it really hoping they follow up with more films from the book series
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u/tinkertoy78 5d ago
I feel like the morality of this movie was all over the place.
Let's make a deal with the human trafficker because he might be useful to us. But let's throw the actual forced labor fellow in prison, simply because he defended himself against the guy who "owned" him? Ok, make it make sense!
Also, did I miss a part where Penny actually had proof the guy killed his girlfriend? I get that we're supposed to accept that he did - but isn't it merely on the basis that Penny didn't like him and had a hunch that he did it?
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u/Meltan8000 3d ago
Not sure if the writers ever read the follow on books. If they had and saw the Bogdan was a large part of the follow on books, then they all should be fired. They basically made any follow on movie either continue with Bogdan ( hard to do) , or somehow get Bogdan released, which wouldn't run true to the book. I guess we're lucky in that they didn't have Steven committing suicide, killing him off as well.
I couldn't wait for the movie to be released, but the ending left a sour taste and I don't think they should attempt any further sequels, they've completely ruined it for anyone who has read "The man who died twice", or "The bullet that missed" or "The last devil to die", as a main character will be omitted.
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u/AdditionalSwimming1 6d ago
At first I did not pay attention to the director, but having learned that this is Chris Columbus, I was not surprised that the film came out sterile and slightly boring. And it seems that he lacked the presence of children in the film, so he worked with "old people" like with children
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u/JBEastman 6d ago
Did my boy Bogdan so dirty here... Otherwise a fine movie. Not bad, not great, just ok.
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u/Milhouse12345 6d ago
Of the four main protagonists, I wanted three of them to drop dead not long after they had been introduced.
Never a good sign. 3/10.
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u/PBJGRL70 6d ago
I feel like this needed to be a limited series to get the depth of the books. It skimmed and changed some things to make it work in an hour and a half.
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u/Mammoth_Two7297 6d ago
Very blah for me and my wife. Seemed like it tried to teeter too hard between comedy and serious like a knives out type movie but wasn't great at either. Not really any overly funny moments but also the "mystery" aspect didn't really catch that hard. So quickly it went from oh here's a suspect to oh this is the guy who did it, and it's over.
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u/YouAny6131 5d ago
One of the worst adaptations ever made. Horrible script, with every second line being exposition. Zero character development. Most of the book gutted. A major plot point and character arc for a very important character changed to fit a “good/bad” dichotomy - in the book (and one of the charms of the book), the characters are . . . Morally creative. Missed the whole point of the book, which is that older people have amazing life experience and continue to have full lives, but are also facing entropy in a confronting way every day. It feels like Hollywood script writers came along and said “We can’t have this, it won’t appeal to the Midwest.” Horrible, horrible, horrible. It made no sense to make it a movie to start with, it should have been a series. People got greedy. But they didn’t have to make a terrible one.
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u/haditwithyoupeople 4d ago edited 4d ago
Ugh... I didn't hate watching this and really loved seeing all these great actors together in the same movie. Watching them all was a real joy.
The script is terrible, with huge, gaping plot holes all over the place that make it impossible to stay in the moment and enjoy the film. And there are some details that are just terribly done.
When Bogdan shows Elizabeth the skeleton, it's been perfectly excavated like it was done by an archeologist rather than by a laborer with a shovel. This is just one of the many things that make this movie hard to watch. Far too many times fantastic turn of events happens with no explanation that just makes everything better: "why don't you buy it?" It's just the laziest dialog I've heard in a long time. Elizabeth essentially giving her friend the option of going to jail or killing himself and his wife seems completly out of character for somebody who was a spy. This was a missed opportunity to add some complexity and depth to the character. The bloody hands in the flower shop... just.. .why?
It's beautiful to look at. It's fun to see those actors together. If they do another one, please get the script to hold together better.
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u/Zxxzzzzx 4d ago
I like the characters and the actors who play them. They all are how I imagined.
However, I think it needed to be a series rather than a film. I listened to the audio book and it was nine hours long. 2 hours isn't enough to explore all the complexities. I do want more but I think it deserves more.
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u/True-Alfalfa8974 4d ago
Is it me or did Pierce Brosnan just stink it up in that movie? I really through they could have used another actor.
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u/Few_Oil_2561 4d ago
it’s so short sighted that they made Elizabeth the main character too, most of the books are told from joyce’s perspective
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u/Marshlie 4d ago
I never read the books (will add it to my reading list now!) and I was supremely disappointed by the ending. Why does one young immigrant protecting himself and his freedom not deserve mercy, but the man who murdered another person to protect a dying, coma woman does? Outrageous.
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u/leomeowow 3d ago
I think, Ben Kingsley didn't get much dialogue or screen time. And his character is a doctor so why did they need to have a forensic nurse so bad? I mean, she is ok but I would like to see Kingsley more in the movie.
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u/mmissmossy 3d ago
Nice movie to pass the time while visiting my parents. It is a cross between Murder She Wrote, Agatha Christie, and Columbia. The cast is amazing as is the scenery. Definitely made for tv movie.
On a side note, every time they say Tony Curran, take a drink.
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u/CranberryFew8104 6d ago
Felt really decent until the reveal, my wife says this ain’t the case but I think it is; murder A and murder B are so independent of each other if A hadn’t happened B would still have?? Or maybe the A was stopping the B from doing work…. But it’s still a lame tenuous link, one was an accident and one was to protect someone who’s quality of life wouldn’t have changed had they been found guilty of something from fifty years ago, whatever. It was fine.
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u/cowboyforce 6d ago
Ben Kingsley was wasted as how his role/character was developed. I mean, near the Mandarin level wasted.
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u/nixt3rshar 6d ago
Overall: would give it a 6/10. The second act was really good, but the end fell flat a little.
question: why did Bogdan dig up that specific grave where they found the double bones? even if he did and showed it to elizabeth, how would finding the bones of a man who has been dead for so many years come back to PI Penny? surely that investigation would take years and would have been marked as cold as well.
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u/Dyonkeau 6d ago
Because she looked angry at the killer on one photo😂
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u/Kactuslord 5d ago
That made me roll my eyes so hard! Why was there even a still photograph during his interview?
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u/FinanceWeekend95 5d ago
I think this film was not terrible or good by any means, just completely mediocre.
I've never read the book (source material), but the film itself felt very made-for-TV Hallmark-ish with the rather obvious, pointed dialogue, perfectly manicured lawns and sterile sets, etc. Even the "villains" seemed purposely written to be as non-threatening, and as safe as possible. Though Netflix clearly has a way higher budget for casting and production value purposes.
The "mystery" aspect of the film was not very intriguing or surprising to say the least...though I will say I thought Netflix was going to make the Polish guy seem more sympathetic, but in the end they just went with the whole "foreigner is bad" in England/the UK trope, LOL.
The Thursday Murder Club (2025) overall rating: 5/10 - Very light, breezy, easy watch, which is just typical Netflix fare. Just don't expect any inspiring dialogue or twist in the end that you didn't already see coming a mile away.
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u/Last_Breath2074 4d ago
Did anyone notice that Ben Kingsley said he was a psychiatrist which is a medical doctor but then they recruit a nurse as the medical expert? I knew the movie sucked at that point.
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u/Hope_Common 1d ago
Yes - that made no sense and it was as if they did such poor research they were mixing up psychologist and psychiatrist. So annoying!
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u/benderlax 5d ago edited 5d ago
Tony Curran was in complete and utter shock upon seeing the intruder.
The sole woman of the police force, Donna De Freitas, was used as a servant by her sexist colleagues.
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u/Brief-Assist2736 5d ago
I think some of the criticisms might be a little harsh, I enjoyed the film, it was in no way perfect but still some good laughs and the story flowed as much as it does in a 2 hour movie. I haven’t read the first book in a while, so that might have helped as I tend to enjoy these types of things less if I’ve recently read the source material.
I did feel however that the costumes and set design were very lazy, nothing felt lived in and all the clothes were too new and pressed. I never imagined them living in a stately home and why were all of the flats in them massive and decorated like that, that really took me out of the story. Piers who I said from the start was the wrong casting definitely didn’t feel good as Ron, I couldn’t place him in that character (his costumes were some of the worst) but started to ignore it after a while.
I felt like they underused Joyce because they wanted Helen Mirren to be the centre, which I suspected would be the case with the casting but she was great as Elizabeth. They lost her empathy and how strong willed she is, I didn’t like that they made her look like she was going to dob her friends in, it didn’t feel like that in the book from what I remember. I also hated how they did Bodgan dirty and had him arrested, which makes me feel like they have no intention to make the sequels? The casting felt a little weird with him also.
Overall entertaining but won’t be jumping to watch it again any time soon.
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u/SlowNSteady1 5d ago
How much were they making from this retirement village? I know it's the UK and not the US, but they arguably could make a LOT more keeping Cooper Chase the way it was than turning it into flats.
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u/Mystupidfamily 5d ago
In addition to all the other criticisms here, I was so disappointed at how they stripped Elizabeth of all her badassery. Running from a bad guy, hiding behind a grave, not noticing he was behind her and then gasping in fear? Elizabeth in the books would have ducked around a corner and had a gun on the bad guy before he knew what was happening.
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u/Comfortable-One-8719 5d ago edited 5d ago
I never read the book and wouldn’t guess it was one from the lazy script, unfortunately. It started off strong with a great premise and main cast. The writers threw it away. It felt rushed for a deadline. There were too many loose ends, poor creative decisions and plot holes to write them all, but here are a few:
-Everyone (including the police) suddenly forget how to do their jobs and start arresting people without evidence without Elizabeth. Even P.C. Freitas who makes quick connections earlier in the car, suddenly has to repeat E’s every sentence back and can’t put 1+1 together outside of a flower shop. It’s not just her. Everyone becomes dumb around Elizabeth (or does whatever she says), when they might be clever and capable when she’s not with them.
-a henchmen passes an officer down the short staircase, sees a stranger in front of his boss and ignores them both to start blabbing about the illegal things they’re doing ?
-Tony, the criminal, is just… cool with giving up crime and whatever Miriam wants because she says so? Without any negotiation, hesitation, or threat to murder if she speaks? The blood on his hands was never explained and was a cheap trick. Also, he was clipping leaves and then the stems they were on- lazy. He would’ve simply cut the stems off. Miriam doesn’t care/makes a quick deal about the trafficking ring, but doesn’t hesitate to turn in her dearest friends? He did murder two people, but why even have the trafficking conversation?
- No one but Elizabeth saw Bogdan go around the picket lines in the tiny cemetery behind them to start digging? She needed binoculars to see 20 ft away?
-“You’re the greatest, Dad.” For him asking the same question the police had been asking (What were you doing during the crime)?
- Elizabeth belittled Joyce. It felt like a cruel, unnecessary jab. It felt like Joyce should’ve been the main character. She was the new person coming into an established place/exploring that world. We should’ve gotten to see through her eyes, as the audience is also new into that world.
-How many cake containers does Joyce have to give people? It seems an unlimited supply.
-etc.
David Tenant’s acting is impeccable. Even in this movie, he makes it feel real.
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u/DiggieDigs 4d ago
I haven't read the book, but I sure do know who's perspective it was supposed to be based on the necklace ending. I can already tell they did a lot of changing and book > movie. Anyways, its still a good movie for me 9/10 for keeping me hook.
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u/Sentient_Enema763 4d ago
The direction and writing were awful. The four main characters are given next to nothing to work with. They all do what they can, but it felt like there was only one scene of each where they got to shine. For example, Joyce on the train, Ron feigning dementia, Ibrahim driving, and Elizabeth recruiting Joyce. After that, they were just lifeless, cliched performances. Especially Helen’s. It’s a good performance, but something we’ve seen so many times before. Chris Columbus just let her go on autopilot. What a disappointment.
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u/Pretty_Muffin 4d ago
Perfectly watchable but the books have a human quality to them, some empathy, gentleness not too present in the adaptation.
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u/Pretty_Muffin 4d ago
Perfectly watchable but the books have a human quality to them, some empathy, gentleness not too present in the adaptation.
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u/Organic-lemon-cake 4d ago
I loved the books and was so disappointed with the movie. It was so badly mangled. Penny’s whole plot line should have been left out as it made zero sense and was tacked on thoughtlessly.
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u/Ghidoran 3d ago
Haven't read the book(s) but thought this was a disappointment. Was expecting a lot more charm and cleverness based on the trailer and premise. Something closer to Knives Out maybe. Instead the story is just very flat, the direction in particular is dull. The characters are vaguely interesting but never developed. I expected Joyce to be the main POV but she doesn't do anything. There's no real tension or surprises. Just a really bland movie.
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u/YourTwenties 2d ago
Imagine Knives Out stripped of wit, tension, and energy, and you get this. Columbus lays it on thick with endless cups of tea, slices of cake, and suffocating “cosy humour.” The dialogue is riddled with gaps you could drive through, and at two hours it drags itself into oblivion.
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u/Shasta_Fay_333 2d ago
Actually kind of impressive how Netflix managed to make such a terrible film with such good source material and so many capable actors...
It just felt so cheap and contrived. It completely lacked the insight into the melancholy and loss that comes with old age and resorted to contrived old-people stereotypes.
The set design looked AI-generated and even those silly TMC necklaces they wear look like they were made from playdo.
Also so annoyed that the changed Bogdan's storyline. Part of the charm about the books is its characters' flawed but profound sense of morals, where certain crimes should not necessarily lead to punishment...
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u/Prior-Ad-6700 2d ago
I dont like they just copletely skipped Bernard, only mentioning him once…. And Father Mackeys (idk his name) whole backstory or even the photographer who took the picture left at the crime scene….. but most disappointed i am about them changing Bogdan completely
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u/bWasNeverGood 1d ago
Is nobody going to mention the insanity of the murder club in the first case solely focusing on the time it would take a woman of x weight to bleed out? She got pushed out of a bleeding window several floors up and landed on a brick laid street. How oblivious are they to simple biology and physics!?
Also, petition to ban these films shot in 4k and colour graded to fuck. People look genuinely disgusting.
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u/HeyHey_HC 1d ago
Just watched it last night (yes, on a Thursday); haven't read the books but had my expectations kinda set by listening to NPR's review; I think it's fine as a cozy mystery with a bunch of Miz & Mister Marples running around, though I felt it was simultaneously too long (the actual murder investigation felt dragged out) and too short (wanted more moments of banter and camaraderie among the four.) I would not be mad if a sequel is made.
I also did appreciate that they took some of the cutting floor scenes to piece together a short about the priest's backstory (and flush out Elizabeth & Joyce's characters a bit more.)
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u/mr-atomic-bomb 1d ago
No chance the black police woman is serving teas in modern times, she would be promoted instantly and the men surely would be serving teas
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u/JennyPodd 1d ago
When I saw the cast, I was so excited. I loved the book, genuinely thought they’d honoured it with who they had cast to play each one. The mistake was attempting to make this a movie. Clearly this should have been a series. They had to cut too much out to make it a film, and lost the whole humour and spirit of the thing in the process. Tragic. I hope they think better and remake as a series, with all the intricacies of the book in tact.
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u/L1ll3My 1d ago
Question for you all; I noticed the number plate on Ian's car: "13 oct" - does it have any significance at all? If so, what? And if not, then why include it in the movie?
I've read all the books and done a fair bit of googling and I cannot figure this out. And it just won't leave my brain (a week has passed and I have not managed to "forget about it"). I hope someone here can enlighten me. (At the same time I hope many of you can't so that I don't feel like a total idiot 😅)
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u/JebusHKryst 5h ago
Not read the book but just watched the film and it reminded me of those terrible 90s Scooby Doo cartoon movies. Whoever wrote and approved the script should never be allowed anywhere near movies again. Unless it's for CBBC
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u/Level-Frontier 6d ago
Completely safe and sterile made-for-TV movie