The Thursday Murder Club

The book got me out of a reading slump because I loved it so much and is so well written, so obviously I was very excited for this film. Before cast had been announced I had thought Helen mirren and Ben Kingsley would be great in this. So I ended up feeling a little disappointed by film overall.

As others have said, the ending felt rushed, missing out parts of the book that would have given you as a viewer the satisfaction of finding out the reasons of why someone had done something.

It is a typical case of the book is better than the film and I imagine if you haven't read the book then the film is great.

A very uneven adaptation of a remarkable book. The first act seems to be moving too slowly to complete the story in two hours, but the ending is rushed and clunky. There are, of course, large portions of the book missing, which unfortunately makes the motives of the perpetrators seem weak. Some of the casting just didn't work at all, accents all over the place. If there had been more time to do the book justice, and more thought put into the casting, this could have been a standout series. As it is it's a mediocre film. Disappointed.

What happened to the flirty Joyce from the book?! Celia Imrie is a brilliant casting for Joyce (as were nearly all the main characters - jury is still out on Pierce Brosnan as Ron), but it all felt a bit lost in translation to screen. The character of Bogdan was far away from the man written in the books, as was Donna. The film was still watchable and entertaining enough, however I think lovers of the book series will feel disappointed that the film failed to capture the same spark that Richard Osman wrote.

If they continue with the other books, they need to make them a series. This movie had everything it needed to be a standout, except a good script. Even if I hadn't read the books I think it would feel rushed. There's just no real build up to the solution. It's very abrupt. Looking at the credits for the 2 writers it's not surprising the script is subpar. Neither has written anything outstanding. Having read the books it's even worse. To fit the limited time frame they made too many changes and oversimplified the plot. Additionally, with a murder mystery series you have to take time to build the characters and their relationships. With this type of mystery, 2 hours just isn't enough time to do either. I was left wondering if they spent too much of the budget on the cast and didn't have enough left to do justice to the story. I'm hoping they learn from the mistake and make the next one a series, or at least a much longer movie. With the one killer saying it was an accident, they could still do a course correction to include the character in the future as is done in the books. But looking at the ratings they may not continue at all. I'll never understand why Hollywood does this. They secure the rights to a popular book with a built in audience and then proceed to alienate that audience by not sticking to the source material. How does that make sense?

My husband and I are seniors and we really liked this movie. It was nice watching something with folks of our own ages and this ensemble cast consisting of Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie were perfect together, kudos on the casting. While the story wasn't terribly complicated it had enough twists to surprise but not confuse us. It was also nice to see Tom Ellis having a role in this as we did enjoy him in Lucifer. Only one big problem though, we wish this was a series as this is something we would definitely look forward to watching more of.