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Netflix's The Thursday Murder Club is a cozy British mystery on steroids or, given the fact that it's set in a posh retirement community, maybe we should say on statins.
Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley and Pierce Brosnan play retirees who formed a club that researches cold cases to pass the time, until a real murder and a plucky new member show up on their incredibly bucolic doorstep.
I'm Glenn Weldon.
This is NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour and we're talking about the Thursday Murder Club.
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Joining me today is my co-host, Linda Holmes.
Pip pip, Linda.
Hello, Glenn.
Also here is Christina Tucker.
She's the co-host of the podcast, Wait, Is This a Date?
Cheerio, Christina.
And a cheerio to you.
Also with us is culture writer Margaret H. Willison.
How you going, Margaret?
Top of the morning to you, Glenn.
There we go.
So the Thursday Murder Club is set in the both hoity and toity retirement community of Cooper's Chase, a gorgeous manor nestled snugly in the green British countryside.
Three residents have formed a club to solve unsolved murders for fun.
There's Ron, a retired union organizer.
He's played by Silver Fox Pierce Brosnan.
There's Ibrahim, a retired psychiatrist.
He's played by a bald, bow-tied Ben Kingsley.
And there's Elizabeth, whose past is kept sort of mysterious, but you can figure it out because, come on, She's played with a Helen Mirren-like steeliness and reserve by Helen Mirren.
As the film opens, they recruit a new arrival named Joyce to the club.
She's a retired nurse played by Celia Emery.
Just in time, too, because folks start turning up dead around the place.
The very impressive cast is filled out by Jonathan Pryce as Elizabeth's husband and David Tennant as Cooper's Chase's obnoxious landlord.
The film is directed by Chris Columbus and is based on the first of a series of best-selling novels by Richard Osman.
It is streaming on Netflix now.
Linda, kick us off.
What'd you think?
I enjoyed this.
I feel like this is a film that raises the question is the fact that something is unabashedly commercial necessarily a reason to believe that it is bad?
Because this is unabashedly commercial in the sense that it is based on something that is already a bestselling book by somebody who was already a very popular British TV host before Rich Drossman wrote these books.
Also, it has exactly the people you would cast in these parts in your ideal, imagined version of this.
I don't know whether he was asked about fantasy casting, but to me, based on how these characters present I will leave it to people who have read the books to explain whether that is more because they back adjusted the characters to fit the actors, but these actors feel perfectly suited to who the characters are.
The minute I saw David Tennant I thought okay, this thing understands that this is not rocket science and that it is not grim and and miserable.
This is supposed to be fun.
I thought it was fun.
Is it pretty on rails?
Of course.
Is there anything in here that made me go?
I can't believe that just happened.
No, But I think the creation of this community, which is very important and precious to these people you know, was something that you know as somebody whose parents have spent time in a similar community.
You know, I think, the community there, as I felt about the show with Ted Danson, the man on the inside, I appreciate seeing a community like this represented.
This is frothy as heck.
And I enjoyed it plenty for that.
I paid very little attention to the actual story.
This is all atmosphere and feel to me.
And in that way, I enjoyed it a lot.
Okay.
So you liked it as far as it goes.
Christina, did you feel the froth?
Were you in with the froth?
I felt the froth.
I was in with the froth.
I did read the book, thanks to Margaret demanding that I, in fact, read said book.
And yes, there are some differences, etc., etc.
It's a new thing.
But for the most part, this is a charming little film with some actors I enjoy very much looking at.
Having a nice little time.
Llamas are involved in a way that you might be surprised to hear, but they're there.
And am I going to think deeply about this movie for the rest of my time?
I am not.
But will I be delighted anytime I catch my likely my parents watching it when I'm home?
Absolutely.
And I think that is important to support.
Okay.
Margaret, a little budgie, as they say in the UK, tells me you were done with this.
I really did not like this.
I read these books reluctantly.
They were popular for a long time before I picked them up because...
They're described as life affirming.
And what I would say for me and literature is I have my life affirmed by literature all the time.
That's a big thing for me.
But life affirming literature, my mileage really varies there.
Sometimes that's actually what it's doing.
Most of the time, what I find it to be is sort of mawkish and overly sentimental literature.
And what's great about the books is that they're none of those things.
And what I don't like about the movie is that it's all of those things.
And I mean, like, it can only be so tough when it's like.
Four seniors are indeed solving murders out of their fancy retirement community.
Like that's a steady plot point.
That's not going anywhere.
But like the second I heard the score.
I honestly wanted to turn the movie off because it's like plunking little strings.
It is very plinky score.
And it's just.
Everything that I like about the books is that they are dry and specific and observant and fun in a way that lots of British writing can be.
Really funny, surprisingly funny.
And the movie really does seem to be like, these seniors are detecting mysteries.
Isn't it adorable?
And I'm like, ugh, is it?
Yeah.
Well Margaret, you've done these books a service, because this didn't land with me for all the reasons you're pointing out and I was going to give up on the books.
But you are now convincing me that maybe I should check out the books.
I mean, because on paper, this is a lot of stuff I love.
I kind of like an idealized, cozy British setting.
Same.
I like a whodunit, you know?
And when it comes to your great British actors, you got all six of them here, right?
All here.
There's all here.
But I was sitting on the couch and my arms were crossed and I was like, why are my arms crossed?
And it's like I think it might have something to do with just how idealized and how cozy this setting is.
Because when...
You know, I'm fine with a bucolic British village with thatched roofs and every citizen is quirky.
I get that.
I'm fine with that.
And I know real village life isn't like that, but...
I don't know.
You know I'm not willing to just nod and go along with clotted cream and crumpets here, because this is a retirement community that is so distant from any retirement community.
And I know why people devour these books.
But for some reason, I could only kind of vibe with this whenever this thing started to nod at.
The realities of aging.
So, OK, so we meet Jonathan's price character who is dealing with dementia.
Yeah.
And we're told he has his good days and his bad days.
And we only see him on his very, very good days.
And I know and I took it to Linda's point and even to Christina's point like you, stick to the fantasy or this could become very depressing.
I really resonate with what you said, Mark.
Something about this seems not kind of harmlessly charming, but it's skirting the shoals of disingenuousness.
Like, this movie so much wants me to find...
And that kind of came off as a little condescending to me.
That's what I'm picking up, Margaret.
It's like you're setting this movie in a hospital without sick people.
Yeah.
This is aging we're talking about.
Maybe it's that it's so circumspect or so cozy because I want that dryness.
I love British humor, Margaret.
But I like if I'm going to eat a big plate of fish and chips, you got to give me some vinegar.
And there is no vinegar in this.
Yeah.
I will say, having both read and watched, I feel like yes, what I was missing from the books was kind of there is a sharper sense.
I think all of the characters get to be a little more prickly and a little more fully realized in the books than they do in the movie.
But I also am kind of like...
The book isn't doing that much more.
I don't think it is that much of a bastardization of the cozy novel set in a retirement community as a film version.
I think if you liked the Chris Columbus, Harry Potter movies, your mileage is going to go well with this, especially if you felt like those are good adaptations.
Because the casting is exquisite.
Shots fired.
I have no opinion about the Chris Columbus Harry Potter movies whatsoever.
I've never been in that world.
The only way I would push back against what you said Glenn, and I think you know everybody is affected by their own experiences with aging and with people that are aging.
But what I think is interesting about communities like this and obviously In a sense of like setting and, you know, physical environment and things like that, it's obviously highly idealized 100.
But there is a sense in which communities like this are made up of people who are often very close with each other, often very interdependent, and they do live with a constant sort of specter.
And I think that, although you know, when you say we only see him on his very good days, I would not agree with that.
I think you see a couple of conversations that he completely loses track of in the middle.
And you see a couple of times when.
Jonathan Price's wife, played by Helen Mirren, sort of panics about how vulnerable she knows that he is because of his dementia and because of his decline and she feels panicky about that vulnerability.
You do see somebody who is in hospice care with a spouse who spends essentially all of their time sitting by the bed.
And you see the experience of feeling close to that person and visiting that person, not necessarily knowing what you should be getting out of a visit with that person.
And that the emotional ambiguity of how Helen Mirren plays those scenes I actually did think had a melancholy to it that I thought was very fitting to this place.
Perhaps one of the ways in which it's idealized is that it really shows these people And they actually are able to exert that some power over their future.
Because you know, the whole mystery here turns on kind of who owns it and who's potentially gonna sell it or bulldoze it or whatever.
And I think the fact that they are given some agency over their future is not necessarily terribly realistic.
I would certainly agree with that.
But I think emotionally, I do think there are maybe more notes of melancholy for me in this film.
And I think your opinion is so telling, Linda, because you haven't read the books.
And I was really curious how any of this would hit with someone who hadn't, because so many of the plot points are contained here.
And the characters are really beautifully embodied by the actors.
But the emotional relationships between them are not really given any space to develop and bloom.
And so I was like, well, what meaning would it have to see Bogdan...
The Polish builder playing chess with you know Stephen, the aging professor who's losing his memory.
Right.
Because in the books, those scenes are like extremely affecting again without being cloying.
And here, because I felt like you're just jumping to the conclusion point, it comes off as forced and cloying to me.
But it is valuable to know that somebody who hadn't had that greater context is able to infer so much from the performances.
I think it's always difficult to know, when you're watching something, where you've read the book and other people haven't.
And I've been on both sides of this to know well the things in the book, which are obviously the written word and so forth that told me how to receive this relationship are not there.
And so is this relationship not really going to be able to be received by anybody?
And I can only speak for myself because, But to me this is where it is so important that they have stacked this with performers, you know, like Helen Mirren, like Jonathan Pryce.
And again, David Tennant, who like the minute you see him, I think you know exactly who that guy is.
That's my boyfriend.
Yeah.
So I think it worked for me.
Listen, when you take a novel and you put it into a two hour movie and it is heavily reliant on relationships there are definitely going to be some shorthand.
And I don't at all disagree that there is always a simplifying of relationships.
Yeah, I definitely felt that simplifying.
But I think for me I also was like this is where these performers really come to really bring their weight, because you know that relationship between Bogdan and Stephen in the book is so sweet, but it was still for me it still works because those two actors really brought it to their you know.
And certainly does Helen Mirren bring a more sexual energy to that relationship with Bogdan than perhaps is in the book.
Yeah, but that's why you hire Helen Mirren.
That's what fun is for.
Come on.
We should mention that Bogdan is played by Henry Lloyd Hughes.
I think... in terms of adaptation, that they left a lot of plot out.
But I think they included one too many murders to really do any of the murders full justice, because I feel like you're not grounded enough in what clues you'd even be looking for to understand what meaning clues have.
And there's a very satisfying arc that's sort of subtly developed throughout the thing.
That gets to be kind of a surprise at the end.
And I feel like if we'd trimmed out one of the present day murders and condensed all those plots around that one, the sort of background murder would get to have more of the weighty impact I know it can have in the books.
But mostly this is all good news.
It's like if you liked the books a lot and are fine with a journeyman, commercial adaptation with great actors.
You've got it.
It's right here.
Yeah, but, Margaret.
If you watch this and you find the score intolerable, turn it off.
Turn it off and read the book.
You mentioned, if we trimmed it out, like, this is the thing.
Why is this?
Which is engineered to be a diverting concoction, a cozy whodunit.
Why is it two hours long?
Also, I totally understand what you're saying, Linda, about those scenes between Mirren and Price.
As I said, those are the parts where I feel like this is getting at something.
This is touching something.
At the same time I felt you got Mirren, you got Brosnan, you got Price and Kingsley and you're still only using them to a fraction of their abilities.
You got these Maseratis up on blocks in your driveway.
You know what I mean?
It just felt like you got to take them out in the open road a bit, which is why I want to ask the folks who read the books –.
Like are these other characters going to get their moments to have like something like that Mirren Price resonance we see here in future books?
Because, you know, as we record this, this movie has not yet dropped on Netflix, but I'm sure it's going to be a hit and I'm sure those future books are going to get adapted if this is successful.
They're going to come back to this well again and again.
You're going to sink a lot of that Netflix money into this incredibly gorgeous, well-appointed bucolic well.
Yeah, I think you get to do more with the other characters in future books.
I think Helen Mirren's character still grounds well.
The dynamic she has with Steven, her husband, is especially.
That's one of the more emotional dynamics you're seeing on screen.
But the others get to come out and do their things.
And I'm excited to see that, maybe.
Maybe.
I love, gotta hedge your bets there.
And I don't want to come across like I am, you know, nominating this movie for Academy Awards.
Agree.
Yeah, I want to say that too.
It's not that.
I'm not here to tell you that it is amazing.
I am here to tell you that I, in many ways, would rather watch something like this, that is I mean listen, it's one thing to decide.
You're going to do a heavily commercial adaptation of a heavily commercial book.
It's another to hire Chris Columbus, right?
They went so down the middle with this.
So down the middle.
In some ways, I would rather do that than some of the kind of Ooh, look at me.
My project is so edgy.
And then you watch it and it's so kind of self-satisfied and dull.
Netflix also puts out movies like that, and in some ways, i would rather just everybody do what you're good at.
This is not a great mystery.
This is a film where, for me, the actual plot elements had a lot of what i would consider blah blah blah material, And that is absolutely a mark against them.
And it sounds like that is less true of the book and the actual putting together.
The mystery is more satisfying, as I feel, about something like Knives Out, which I find a very satisfying mystery, with all the pieces that go click click click click click click, click.
This doesn't have that.
I'm not here to tell you how awesome it is.
I'm just here to tell you I found it pleasurable.
Listen, if you look at this and you think well, that seems like something that maybe I'll turn on on a Sunday afternoon, it'll probably treat you fine.
Mm-hmm.
Christina, last word.
That is exactly how I feel.
If you're going to turn this on, if you have an afternoon with the fam that you need entertainment for all ages, this is your golden ticket, right here.
I think this is going to bring a smile to everyone's face.
Though I would like to say this is a criminal waste of Joseph Marcel.
I'd like to get him on the screen more.
Why was he there for one second?
I never got to see any more of him.
Who does he play?
Sorry.
He plays the priest.
Okay.
Just briefly.
Just a gorgeous glimpse of him, and then he was taken away.
That's all.
All right.
Good to know.
Well, listeners, you will arrange yourself along the spectrum.
One of our takes is going to resonate with you.
Tell us what you think about the Thursday Murder Club.
And speaking of retirees, we're still on Facebook.
Maybe you are, too.
Find us there.
Skibbity toilet.
Mewing.
Give me a third thing, folks.
What's a third thing?
Riz.
I don't know.
Riz.
There you go.
And that brings us to the end of our show.
Christina Tucker, Margaret H. Willis, and Linda Holmes, thank you so much for being here.
It was a pleasure, Glenn.
Thank you.
Thank you, bud.
And just a reminder that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus is a great way to support our show on public radio and you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor-free.
So please go find out more at plusnprorg slash happy hour or visit the link in our show notes.
This episode was produced by janae morrison, my cats have been edited by our showrunner, jessica reedy, and hello come in provides our theme music.
Thank you for listening to pop culture happy hour from npr.
I'm glenn weldon and we'll see you all next time.
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