Netflix film “The Thursday Murder Club”, which was released on last Thursday, is a little cozy murder mystery revolving around a small group of old amateur sleuths. While this is another your average Netflix product, it has enough wit and personality thanks to its solid storytelling and dependable cast, and the overall result is more entertaining than I expected.

The main background of the story is the home for old retirees somewhere in UK, and the opening part introduces the four members of “The Thursday Murder Club”: Elizabeth Best (Helen Mirren), Ron Ritchie (Pierce Brosnan), Ibrahim Arif (Ben Kingsley), and Joyce Meadowcroft (Celia Imrie), who joins the group after a former member of the group was recently sent to the hospice section due to her worsening illness. The main focus of their interest has been old unsolved cases in the past, and the latest one happens to be about the very suspicious death of one young woman, who was probably killed by her boyfriend shortly before he was vanished.

Anyway, things get more interesting for the members of the Thursday Murder Club as the cozy life in the facility becomes seriously threatened. The facility has been partially owned by a local businessman named Ivan Ventham (David Tennant), and Ventham has been quite eager to change the facility into something else for more profit. However, his plan is vehemently objected by his main business partner, a tough local dude who really cares about the facility for a personal reason.

Now you already have a pretty good idea about what will occur next. A murder happens not long after Elizabeth and her three colleagues witness an argument between Ventham and his business partner, and the police soon embark on searching for any possible suspect. As observing how sloppy a local detective assigned to the case is, the members of the Thursday Murder Club decide to handle the matter for themselves, especially after coming to learn that the future of their facility becomes more uncertain due to that murder.

Fortunately, each of them turns out to be fairly resourceful in each own way. As someone who once worked in MI6, Elizabeth surely knows how to sidestep a number of obstacles in front of them, and she soon recruits Donna De Freitas (Naomi Ackie), a smart young policewoman who has been often disregarded by her boss and colleagues due to sexism. While Ibrahim can provide some psychological insight as an ex-psychiatrist, Ron is ready for some action as an ex-union activist, and Joyce was asked to join the group because she was an ex-nurse with considerable medical knowledge.

In front of these four people, there are certainly several possible suspects to be investigated. For example, as they delve more into the business partnership involved with Ventham, it turns out that he has the other business partner who may be involved with the case considering a lot of notoriety surrounding this shady figure. In addition, the situation becomes more complicated when Elizabeth discovers an old hidden secret hidden somewhere around the facility thanks to a little help from a Polish lad who is incidentally one of Ventham’s employees.

The screenplay by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, which is based on the mystery novel of the same name by Richard Osman, does not hurry itself even though things become more serious and urgent for its main characters. After all, despite their irrepressible eagerness, the members of the Thursday Murder Club have been getting older day by day, and they are often reminded of their approaching mortality via many of their fellow retirees. In case of Elizabeth, she has happily lived with her husband Stephen (Jonathan Pryce) in their comfortable room, but he has unfortunately been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, and she is afraid of when her husband will not remember her anymore.

Steadily focusing on character development, the movie eventually arrives at the narrative point where everything is resolved and explained to our little satisfaction. Of course, I do not dare to spoil any of your entertainment, but I can tell you instead that the story neatly pulls out the answer with some poignancy, and I was also quite delighted by how a certain figure unexpectedly functions as your typical armchair detective later in the story.

The four principal main cast members are constantly engaging as bringing some touch of class to the film. While Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, and Pierce Brosnan ably fill their archetype characters with enough presence and personality, Celia Imrie holds her own place well among her more prominent co-stars, and these wonderful four performers are surrounded by a bunch of various performers including David Tennant, Naomi Ackie, Daniel Mays, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Tom Ellis, Ingrid Oliver, and Richard E. Grant, who is enjoyable as usual during his brief appearance later in the movie.

Overall, “The Thursday Murder Club”, directed by Chris Columbus, is often fun to watch thanks to the game efforts of its main cast members. Considering that Osman wrote several sequels and already finished writing the fifth book, I will not be surprised if the movie is followed by at least one sequel, and I will not complain as long as they maintain the level of charm and fun shown from this modest but entertaining movie.