Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop

Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop is a simple old fashioned British whodunit mystery.

Miss Willoughby is not Miss Marple and this story is definitely not a Agatha Christie story. Also the movie has a TV look and may be a bit slow for some, but it is a good story with very likable actors.

We open in 1996 and young Elizabeth Willoughby is attending her parents funeral. Elizabeth inherits the family's elaborate huge English Estate complete with full-time servants. A family friend, Robert (Kelsey Grammer) becomes Elizabeth's Guardian and caretaker of the Family Estate.

Robert raises Elizabeth and trains and teaches her fitness, martial arts, chess. And ancient war strategies.

Then we cut 25 years later, and now an adult, a book author, and Professor of Ancient Civilizations, Elizabeth (Nathalie Cox) is asked to investigate a series of hauntings at her friend's Bookshop.

As Elizabeth starts to investigate, she begins to question the possibility that this may be a real ghost.

The movie is more of a fun British TV show and doesn't really take itself too seriously but I did enjoy it. The ending suggest that this may be the first of many more Miss Willoughby mystery films.

Obviously intended to kickstart another TV 'cosy crime' series. Nathalie Cox is unfortunately both bland and cold as wealthy mystery solver Miss Willoughby, trained in military strategy and martial arts since childhood after the deaths of her parents (very 'Batman' - she even lives in a ridiculously large, isolated mansion); but co-lead Kelsey Grammer is as watchable as ever as her Alfred-like assistant/mentor, Robert. You'll probably see the solution to this paranormal head scratcher coming a mile away, but it passes the time well enough. Not sure I can see this becoming a hit franchise. 6/10.

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.

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.

Was expecting it to be a hallmark quality production but it was actually decent. Sure there not great actors and Kelsey grammer doesn't try anymore but it had a decent mystery and story going throughout. Not overly long or complicated, worth the watch for someone looking for a short murder mystery.