Chris Columbus Archives

Review: ‘The Thursday Murder Club,’ starring Helen Mirren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley and Celia Imrie

August 25, 2025

by Carla Hay

Celia Imrie, Ben Kingsley, Helen Mirren and Pierce Brosnan in “The Thursday Murder Club” (Photo by Giles Keyte/Netflix)

Directed by Chris Columbus

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional city of Fairhaven, England, the comedy/drama film “The Thursday Murder Club” (based on the 2020 novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and one person of Middle Eastern heritage) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Four people, who live in an upscale retirement home, find themselves investigating a cold-case murder and multiple recent murders that affect whether or not the retirement home will displace the residents.

Culture Audience: “The Thursday Murder Club” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of movie’s headliners, the book on which the movie is based, and well-acted murder mysteries that have touches of comedy.

Pictured in center: Naomi Ackie and Daniel Mays in “The Thursday Murder Club” (Photo by Giles Keyte/Netflix)

“The Thursday Murder Club” is a charming and enjoyably comedic adaptation of the popular novel about four retirees who like to solve murder mysteries. The talented cast’s performanes overcome some cornball moments. “The Thursday Murder Club” doesn’t reinvent the murder mystery genre, but it’s a welcome addition to the short list of movies where senior citizens are crime-fighting sleuth protagonists.

Directed by Chris Columbus and written by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote, “The Thursday Murder Club” is adapted from Richard Osman’s best-selling 2020 novel of the same name. “The Thursday Murder Club” takes place in the fictional small city of Fairhaven, England. The movie’s main location of a manor-styled retirement home was actually filmed at Englefield House in Berkshire, England.

“The Thursday Murder Club” begins at Coopers Chase, the retirement home that is at the center of the story. Coopers Chase has its own church and cemetery. The residents of Coopers Chase are kept busy with a variety of activities, including painting and archery.

Three of the Coopers Chase residents, who call themselves the Thursday Murder Club, are having their weekly Thursday meeting to discuss a cold case that they are investigating as amateur sleuths. These unofficial private investigators will also find themselves involved in a current murder case that will affect their residency at Coopers Chase.

The three residents are retired MI6 agent Elizabeth Best (played by Helen Mirren), the self-assured leader of the group; retired work union activist Ron Ritchie (played by Pierce Brosnan), a flirtatious ladies’ man; and retired psychiatrist Ibrahim Arif (played by Ben Kingsley), a thoughtful intellectual. Elizabeth is happily married to retired academic Stephen Best (played by Jonathan Pryce), who has early on-set dementia. Ron is twice-divorced and has an adult son in his 30s. Ibrahim is a “confirmed bachelor” whose past love life is briefly revealed in a scene toward the end of the movie.

The cold case that the Thursday Murder Club members discuss at the beginning of the movie is the murder of Angela Hughes (played by Ellie Keighley), a woman in her 20s who fell from the second-floor window of her apartment at approximately 12:48 a.m. on May 11, 1973. Angela was found with a knife in her abdomen. According to the police report, Angela’s boyfriend—25-year-old mechanic/British Army veteran Peter Mercer (played by Will Stevens)—saw Angela fall to the ground after hearing two voices coming from the open window.

Peter said that he saw a masked man run away from the apartment shortly after Angela fell. Peter told police investigators that he chased after the masked man, but the masked man escaped. Peter was cleared as a suspect. Not long after Angela’s death, Peter disappeared and remained a missing person. Angela’s murder case has been unsolved ever since.

When the Thursday Murder Club members are discussing this case, they use a portable drawing board that has newspaper clippings and other items related to the case, including a gruesome photo of the crime scene. It’s during this meeting that they meet another resident for the first time: Joyce Meadowcroft (played by Celia Imrie), a retired nurse who is a widow. Joyce happens upon the Thursday Murder Club while Joyce is giving her adult daughter Joanna (played by Ingrid Oliver) a tour of Coopers Chase.

The sight of the murder scene photo is jarring to Joanna, but Joyce is intrigued. Joanna—a bachelorette who works as a hedge fund executive—wants Joyce to live in an apartment in London. Joyce refuses because she likes living in Coopers Chase, where she has a better chance of making friends. Joyce doesn’t think she’ll be able to make friends in a neighborhood that has “hipsters and vegan bakeries.”

Elizabeth notices that Joyce was unfazed by the gruesome crime scene photo and correctly deduces that Joyce must have some type of medical background. She asks Joyce if it’s possible, based on the amount of blood in the photo, if Angela was still alive when she fell to the ground. Joyce says that it depends.

Elizabeth figures that Joyce can be useful to the Thursday Murder, so she invites Joyce to join as a temporary member. Joyce is the replacement for longtime member Penny Gray (played by Susan Kirkby), a Coopers Chase resident who is in a coma from an unnamed illness and isn’t expected to recover. Penny’s loyal husband John Gray (played by Paul Freeman) is the veterinarian for Coopers Chase, which has a pack of llamas.

The Thursday Murder Club’s investigation into the Angela Hughes murder case gets put on hold due to a more pressing matter: The residents of Coopers Chase are outraged that one of the property owners plans to tear down the cemetery and the manor and build luxury apartments and an event space there instead. This owner is the sleazy and callous Ian Ventham (played by David Tennant), who has a disdain for elderly people and doesn’t care that the Coopers Chase residents, many of whom signed lifetime leases, will be displaced because of his plans.

Despite these leases, the property can be sold or converted due to a loophole in the lease contracts. However, Ian won’t get his way so easily. Someone who is very much against converting and selling the property is co-owner Tony Curran (played by Geoff Bell), who made his fortune in questionable ways. Tony is a rough-and-tumble type who has long been affiliated with underground criminal groups, but nothing has been proven in a court of law. Tony’s aunt Maud (played by Ruth Sheen) lives at Coopers Chase, which is one of the reasons why Tony wants Coopers Chase to continue to be retirement home.

Tony and Ian openly argue about this proposed sale in front of some of the residents, including the Thursday Murder Club. Tony promises the residents that he won’t let Coopers Chase be sold. Ian is also going through another battle: He’s embroiled in a bitter and expensive divorce case with his soon-to-be-ex-wife. Ian’s divorce expenses are why he’s so eager to sell the converted Coopers Chase property to the highest bidder.

Meanwhile, Ian secretly makes a deal with Coopers Chase chief handyman named Bogdan (played by Henry Lloyd-Hughes) to oversee digging up the cemetery, where Ian plans to start rebuilding the property into luxury apartments. (Ian wanting to build an apartment complex where a cemetery used to be is an indication of his callousness and how he isn’t as business-savvy as he thinks he is.) Bogdan is a Polish immigrant who needs the job to help pay for his ailing mother in Poland.

While this turmoil is going on, the Fairhaven Police Department has sent a police constable named Donna de Freitas (played by Naomi Ackie) to Coopers Chase to give a speaking appearance/tutorial on home security. Elizabeth think this lecture will be boring and asks questions instead that are related to the Angela Hughes murder. Donna is patient but seems a bit frazzled by the feisty attitude of some of the Coopers Chase residents.

Elizabeth, who is always thinking of ways that people can be useful to the Thursday Murder Club, invites Donna to have lunch with her and the Thursday Murder Club after this lecture. It’s during this lunch that Elizabeth gets Donna to admit that Donna (who used to work for the London Police Department) is bored at the Fairhaven Police Department, where she works in a male-dominated environment and is assigned lightweight administrative duties. The worst crimes that Donna is allowed to deal with are traffic violations. And she has to do subservient things, such as serve tea to her male colleagues, who treat her like secretary.

As Donna is about to leave, Ron’s handsome and friendly son Jason (played by Tom Ellis) arrives. Jason, who visits Tom two or three times a week, is a famous ex-boxing champion whose boxing career ended due to an injury. Jason now makes a living by appearing on celebrity-oriented reality show competitions, such as “Celebrity MasterChef” and “Dancing on Ice.” Donna is star-struck when she meets Jason.

Coopers Chase is rocked to the core when co-owner Tony is found bludgeoned to death in his home. The movie shows in the moments before Tony was murdered in his house’s foyer, he saw the intruder, and he knew this person, who is not seen committing the murder. The Fairview Police Department’s detective chief inspector Chris Hudson (played by Daniel Mays) is the lead investigator in this murder case.

It should come as no surprise that Chris is an arrogant and sexist buffoon who is no match for the Thursday Murder Club. Through a series of circumstances, Donna becomes involved in the investigation, which goes through a series of twists and turns. And the investigators have more to handle because Tony isn’t the only person who gets murdered.

“The Thursday Murder Club” has a few deliberately clownish moments (such as a scene where Elizabeth and Joyce “infiltrate” the Fairhaven Police Station), but the movie has some pointed and serious observations of ageism, sexism and how people have different perspectives of dying. Joyce is initially thrilled that she’s getting to investigate a current murder case in the Thursday Murder Club until the other members remind her that Tony’s death means that they’ve lost an ally in the fight to prevent Coopers Chase from being turned into an apartment complex.

The movie stays faithful to the book by giving distinct personalities to the main characters, which are enlivened by the cast members’ performances. Elizabeth is a no-nonsense character who shows her softer side when she’s with her husband. Ron is outspoken and passionate and sometimes seems to want to prove that he’s as smart as Elizabeth. Ibrahim is calm, logical and empathetic. Joyce, as a newcomer to the club, is eager to fit in and impress others. A running joke in the story is Joyce likes to make pastries as gifts to people who are interviewed.

The supporting cast members also do well in their less-expansive roles. The standout supporting performances are from Tennant (who is hilarious as a greedy corporate villain, even though the Ian character is a bit cartoonish) and Ackie as Donna, whose self-confidence blossoms as she gets more involved in the investigation. Richard E. Grant has a memorable cameo as a pivotal character named Bobby Tanner.

“The Thursday Murder Club” has a few jokes that are unique to the movie. For example, there’s a scene that references Mirren’s Oscar-winning role as Queen Elizabeth II in 2006’s “The Queen.” (And just by coincidence, her “Thursday Murder Club” character is also named Elizabeth.)

The marvelous production design and excellent cinematography add to the movie’s appeal. “The Thursday Murder Club” does justice to the lengthy book by making it a breezy, easy-to-digest version of the story. “The Thursday Night Murder Club” novel turned into a beloved book series. Based on what the first “Thursday Night Murder Club” movie delivers, it has all the makings of becoming a popular series too.

Netflix will release “The Thursday Murder Club” on Netflix and in select U.S. cinemas on August 28, 2025. The movie was released in U.K. cinemas on August 22, 2025.

Review: ‘Music by John Williams,’ starring John Williams, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy and Chris Columbus

December 29, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Music by John Williams”

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau

Culture Representation: Filmed in 2023, mostly in the United States, the documentary film “Music by John Williams” features award-winning music composer John Willams and a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans, Latin people and Asians) who are his friends, colleagues or family members talking about Williams’ life and career.

Culture Clash: Williams started off as a jazz musician and classical music orchestra player but transitioned into become the most famous and most-awarded movie composer of all time.

Culture Audience: “Music by John Williams” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of Williams and the movies he composed music for, including “Star Wars,” “E.T.,” the “Indiana Jones” films, and the first three “Harry Potter” movies.

John Williams in “Music by John Williams” (Photo courtesy of Lucasfilm/Disney+)

The tribute documentary “Music by John Williams” gives an admirable career retrospective of the world’s most famous movie composer. John Williams and his colleague friends provide most of the commentary in a formulaic but educational and delightful film. Even the most ardent fans of Williams will see or learn something new from seeing this well-researched documentary. “Music by John Williams” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of AFI Fest.

Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, “Music by John Williams” is the type of documentary that would be hard get wrong, considering the subject matter and the participation of all the immensely talented people (including Williams) in this film. Born in New York City in 1932, Williams has an extraordinary body of work that includes composing the iconic scores for numerous high-profile films, including “Star Wars” movies, the “Indiana Jones” movies, 1977’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” 1982’s “E.T. the Extraterrestrial,” 1993’s “Schindler’s List,” 1998’s “Saving Private Ryan” and the first three “Harry Potter” movies.

Williams has won every major award for film music composing (including several Oscars and Grammys) and has earned the description of being a “legendary” composer. “Music by John Williams” has the expected descriptions of Williams’ most famous movie scores with clips from these films and some anecdotal stories. As such, “Music by John Williams” is very much a nostalgia documentary, but it’s also an inspirational story of someone who refuses to follow the conventions that most people follow when it comes to aging and retirement.

“Music by John Williams” tells Williams’ story in chronological order and includes personal photos of Williams in his youth. Williams is candid about his experiences but mostly talks about his career, his compositions and the fondness he has for his colleague friends. He came from a family of musicians and creative people: His father Johnny was a drummer/percussionist, his mother Esther was a dancer, and his younger brothers Jerry and Don and older sister Joan also had musical talent and became musicians. Williams’ three children—daughter Jenny, son Mark and son Joe—also became musicians. (For the purposes of this review, John Williams will be referred to as Williams.)

Williams describes having a happy childhood, which is when he taught himself a lot of what he knows about music through constant practicing. By the time he was in high school, he was writing music for the school’s orchestra. Williams describes this accomplishment in such a modest way, it’s almost easy to forget that most high schoolers wouldn’t be able and wouldn’t be asked to write music for their school orchestra.

In his late teens and 20s, Williams studied music while he attended the University of California at Los Angeles, Juilliard, and the University of Rochester. For a brief time, he was in the U.S. Air Force. When he relocated permanently to Los Angeles, Williams became a session musician for many movies and TV shows from the mid-1950s onward. He worked with mentors such as Harry Mancini and André Previn. Some of Williams’ film credits during this time included 1956’s Carousel, 1959’s “Peter Gunn” and 1961’s “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Williams also became known as a jazz musician. And it wasn’t long before he was composing and conducting his own film and TV scores. Some his TV credits in the 1960s included “Gilligan’s Island” and “Lost in Space.” His first movie score as a composer was the 1958 forgettable flop “Daddy-O.” It’s an example of how Williams didn’t let any early career failures deter him.

Because so much of Williams’ best-known music is in movies directed and/or produced by Steven Spielberg, it should come as no surprise that Spielberg is one of the producers of “Music by John Williams” and is one of the enthusiastic commentators in the documentary. As Williams says in the documentary, the “luckiest day” of his life was meeting Spielberg, who has worked with Williams for all of the feature films directed by Spielberg so far. In the documentary, Spielberg gushes about Williams’ music: “It’s the purest form of art I’ve experienced from any human being.”

Other filmmakers who are interviewed for the documentary are “Star Wars” creator George Lucas, J.J. Abrams, Ron Howard, Kathleen Kennedy, Chris Columbus, Lawrence Kasdan, James Mangold and Frank Marshall. Musicians who pay homage to Williams in this documentary include Chris Martin (lead singer of Coldplay), Branford Marsalis, David Newman, Thomas Newman, Alan Silvestri, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Gustavo Dudamel, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Thomas Hooten and Master Sergeant Karen Johnson of the U.S. Marines Chamber Orchestra. Other interviewees include actress Kate Capshaw, actor Ke Huy Quan and journalists Alex Ross, Elvis Mitchell and Javier Hernandez. Williams’ daughter Jenny and her singer/musician son Ethan Gruska are also interviewed.

The commentators for the documentary have nothing but praise for Williams as an artist and as a person. Spielberg says his first impression of Williams is who Williams remained for all of these years: “He was an elegant man—always has been—but very warm.” Williams gets absolutely no criticism in this movie, which makes him look almost too good to be true.

However, observant viewers will notice that if there’s one major flaw that Williams seems to have is that he’s a workaholic who has often put his career above his personal life. This not-very-surprising revelation comes directly from Williams. He describes how although he was a happily married father during his marriage to actress/singer Barbara Ruick (his first wife, whom he married in 1956), when their three kinds were young, he deliberately spent more time at the music studios of 20th Century Fox than he did at home because being around his kids at home was too much of a noisy distraction for him.

Williams’ daughter Jenny is the only one of his children who is interviewed in the documentary. She doesn’t mention how her father’s absences affected her childhood but she does say that she had to become a mother figure for her younger brothers after their mother tragically died at age 41 of an aneurysm in 1974. Williams says in the documentary that her sudden death is still hard for him to talk about, and he admits he had problems handling being a widowed father of teenagers. Williams and photographer Samantha Winslow (who is not interviewed in the documentary) got married in 1980, and he briefly mentions their happy marriage in the documentary.

One of the most poignant parts of the documentary is when Williams says that he believes that his music improved during this widower part of his life because he felt that Ruick (in spirit) was helping him be a better composer. The phenomenal success of the 1977 “Star Wars” score soundtrack catapulted Williams to a new level of fame. He has been performing at the Hollywood Bowl every year since 1978 and has been a Boston Symphony Orchestra conductor at Tanglewood Music Center every year since 1980, except for 2024, when he could not attend for an undisclosed health reason. As for his prolific career as a composer and conductor, Williams says that he has no intention of retiring.

“Music by John Williams” has scenes (exclusively filmed for this documentary) of Spielberg and Williams happily reminiscing about their collaborations. Spielberg repeats a well-known story about how he was skeptical at first when he heard the shark theme for “Jaws” because Williams had first played it on a piano, and Spielberg didn’t think it sounded menacing enough. However, Spielberg was convinced nce he hear the entire musical sequence in orchestra form.

Speaking of orchestras, Williams is one of the few major film composers who still records entirely with an orchestra and writes out his music by hand. He admits that this way of writing and recording film music is “dying,” as more film composers turn to digital technology. Williams doesn’t seem snobbish about it, but he does express some concern that some of the art form might be lost with new generations of film composers relying only on digital technology to make and record music.

At 105 minutes, “Music by John Williams” skillfully packs in Williams’ entire robust career so far in a well-edited compilation of archival footage and exclusive new interviews. There are very few surprises, except for Williams’ confession that he rarely watches movies and has never been that interested in being a moviegoer. What isn’t surprising is Williams saying that music will always be his biggest passion. Whether or not you’re the type of person to buy classical music scores, “Music by John Williams” makes his passion for music very infectious in the best ways possible.

Disney+ released “Music by John Williams” in select U.S. cinemas and on Disney+ on November 1, 2024.