Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop

Before I watched this film, I thought it's going to be unbearable seemingly this is some kind of low budget film. But I was amazed to see it turned out to be a watchable film. Yes, the story is simple and so plain, but the director somehow managed to make it not to feel bored. I wasn't feeling bored while I was watching it even though I was kind of feeling sleepy. I woke up completely after 15 minutes of watching this film because it seemed to be interesting and I enjoyed the whole thing.

Anyway, it was fun and I kind of had good time with this film. Although this film is doing okay and watchable, if the story was better than now, it'd be more interesting and I might give it more stars.

It's a slow mystery set in leafy rural England, similar to a lot of UK TV shows.

Quite predictable, but full of lots of good British comedy actors like Caroline Quentin. Kelsey Grammer is as watchable as ever.

This won't set your world on fire but it passed a pleasant 95 minutes for me.

I'm not quite sure why this movie got so many negative reviews and comments. It could just be that they do not understand British humor and television. In my opinion this has been a completely brilliant British whodunit. Kelsey Grammer is excellent and his role. The lead actress is likable and interesting. It has your typical British humor and mystery.

Don't give it a negative review simply because you don't understand or like British humor because as a mystery it's pretty good.

Personally I hope they make more movies together as they had excellent on screen chemistry. It reminds me of a type of Agatha Christie and Murder She Wrote.

Right, well initially I was lured in by this 2021 crime mystery's title. I mean, with it being titled "Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop", I figured that I would be in for something with some kind of haunting.

But imagine my surprise when I found out that what I was in for was something rather different. Yeah, "Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop" from writers Josh Ridgway and Kate Wood felt like a movie based on a cheap mystery novel. You know, the ones that come a dime a dozen and aimed at a slightly older audience. That is how this movie came off to me. So I was somewhat disappointed with it not having ghosts.

And I also have to say that the fact that Kelsey Grammer was on the cast list helped to win me over to sit down and watch the movie.

Director Brad Watson didn't really deliver a movie that fell all that much into my liking. Sure, a mystery movie is fine, but not if it feels like one of those cheap crime mysteries that you have tossed at you with the purchase of a weekly magazine. The storyline simply was too stereotypical, generic and predictable. And there weren't much of any suspense or thrills throughout the course of the movie.

Sure, it was fun to watch Nathalie Cox and Kelsey Grammer playing together in a movie again and at the same mansion nonetheless. They worked togethat at the very same location back in 2020 for the Christmas movie titled "Father Christmas". So that was a fun thing to witness, not that it had any influence on the storyline or anything.

The acting performances in the movie were good. But the storyline was just a tad too generic and mundane for my liking.

My rating of "Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop" lands on a four out of ten stars.

This movie is better than any Hallmark Original that would come up with the same premise, and that is good enough for me to watch it till the end.

The chemistry between the two leads is believable, the pace of action does not stall once the 1st act is done, and the final act has enough surprises/turns to make the 95 previous minutes worth it.