Directed by Chris Columbus, The Thursday Murder Club is based on a novel by Richard Osman. The film follows the story of Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim, residents of Cooper’s Chase retirement home, whose favorite pastime was to solve cold cases and unravel long-buried mysteries. But little did they know that their talent for solving cases would come in handy and they would end up playing a critical role in an ongoing murder investigation where the co-owners of their retirement home were found dead under mysterious circumstances. So, let’s find out what the sleuths were up to, and if they were able to solve the case.
Spoiler Alert
What happened in the Angela Mercer case?
Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahhim constituted The Thursday Murder Club, a bunch of self-proclaimed sleuths who met every Thursday at the old age home called the Coopers Chase, and tried to solve cold cases that had been shut down due to lack of evidence, or to dig deeper when they suspected someone had been wrongfully accused. Elizabeth was very cryptic when it came to her past. She had probably worked with MI6 as an agent back in the day. Ron was a man of influence, and he had been a union leader, while Ibrahim was a psychiatrist. Another member was added to the group when the trio felt that they needed somebody with expertise in the medical field. They knew of an ex-nurse named Joyce who stayed in Cooper’s Chase, and so they went and pitched her the idea of working with them. It was a big decision for Joyce to come and live at Cooper’s Chase, as her daughter, Joana, who managed a hedge fund, wanted to have her nearby. Joyce had never taken such a huge decision by herself, and she was a bit nervous it could all backfire. Joyce knew that making friends would be the key to her survival at the old age home, and the offer from the trio came as a blessing in disguise.
The group was investigating the murder of Angela Hughes, who was pushed from her window after being stabbed. Angela’s boyfriend, Peter Mercer, told the authorities that he was going to visit her late at night when she fell from her window right in front of his eyes. There were a few police officers, like Elizabeth’s friend, DI Penny Gray, who believed that it was Mercer who had killed Angela. But Penny didn’t have much of a say in the case, as her misogynist colleagues liked Mercer, and they took him for his word. After some time, Mercer disappeared, and nobody knew what had happened to him. Some believed that he was killed, while others thought that he was lying low, as he didn’t want his secrets to come out in the open. What Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim didn’t know was that Angela Hughes’ case would entwine itself with the string of murders that were going to happen in their town.
Who murdered Tony Curran? And why?
Cooper’s Chase was co-owned by Ian Ventham and Tony Curran, but there was a third secret investor too, whom The Thursday Murder Club came to know about later. Tony’s aunt also stayed in Cooper’s Chase, which was why Ian knew that the former wouldn’t agree to his plan for the place. Ian wanted to tear down the entire Cooper’s Chase building and use the entire area, together with the cemetery land next to it, to build luxury flats. Tony told Ian that he would let him do that, and the duo had a heated argument in front of Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim. The next day, Joyce came bearing the news that Tony had been killed, and obviously Ian Ventham became the prime suspect in the case. Elizabeth felt that they needed somebody who was part of the law enforcement authorities and who could give them information on whatever was happening with the case. The police found a photograph at Tony’s house where he was seen standing next to a man named Bobby Tanner. Tanner was a dreaded mafia member who was involved in every kind of illegal activity back in the day; nobody had heard from Bobby for quite some time, and so people presumed that he was dead. But that was not the case: Bobby ran a flower shop in town, and he was the third secret investor of Cooper’s Chase. Also, another thing that nobody knew about was that Ron’s son, Jason, a celebrity boxer who had to take voluntary retirement due to an injury, used to work for Ian and Bobby. DCI Chris Hudson questioned Jason, but it came to be known that he’d been with Ian’s wife, with whom he was having an affair, at the time of Tony’s murder. Jason was hesitant to reveal where he was because he didn’t want anybody to know about his affair. But the reality was that none of them were involved in the murder of Tony Curran. In fact, when Elizabeth found out about the flower shop out of which Bobby operated and she went to meet him, the man told her quite honestly that as much as he would have wanted to kill his nagging partners, he did not have a role to play in it. Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce benefited greatly from the information provided to them by police officer Donna de Freitas. Donna wanted to be part of a real investigation, but her seniors just didn’t allow her to do that. Elizabeth sensed that feeling of boredom that Donna had, and she decided to make her a part of the team and give her the opportunity to solve a real murder mystery. Donna agreed, and Elizabeth, Ron, and Ibrahim made sure that DCI Chris Hudson made her a part of his team.
Coming back to the case, Ian, realizing that Tony wouldn’t help his cause, gave the contract to demolish the entire place and start construction work to a Polish native named Bogdan. Bogdan was a good man, and he wanted to go back to Poland to pay a visit to his ailing mother. Tony had confiscated his passport, and he didn’t give it back to him even after the man requested it several times. It was Bogdan who killed Tony, and after he got caught, he stated that it was one big accident and things just escalated unintentionally. Elizabeth figured out that it was Bogdan who had killed Tony when she was having a chat with Bobby at his shop. Bobby told her how Tony never gave his employees their passports, and made them work in deplorable circumstances. Even Elizabeth’s husband, Stephen, who was suffering from dementia, had figured it out as he overheard the conversations that Bogdan had with Elizabeth. Stephen, who struggled with memory loss, had a habit of recording the conversations he had with his opponents during chess matches. It helped him assess his opponent’s strategies, but this time around it became the key evidence that led to Bogdan’s arrest. Stephan told Bogdan that he knew that he had murdered Tony. Bogdan confessed to the crime because I think he didn’t feel like lying to Stephan. Bogdan had developed a rather deep bond with the old man, and he might have thought that the latter wouldn’t remember anything later. But Bogdan was unaware of the recording device, and that’s how he was arrested by DCI Hudson and put behind bars.
Who killed Ian Ventham? And why?
After Tony Curran, Ian Ventham also died under mysterious circumstances. The man was injected with a high dosage of fentanyl, and he collapsed when he was stopped from entering Cooper Chase premises by the protestors. Another interesting thing had happened after Ian asked Bogdan to start digging up the cemetery area: the latter found a skeleton, buried not within a coffin but placed above it. Bogdan told Elizabeth about it before he was arrested by DCI Hudson. Elizabeth asked Donna to send the bones for testing, so she came to know that the skeleton was that of Peter Mercer, Angela Hughes’ boyfriend who had gone missing after her murder. Elizabeth made a lucky breakthrough when she found a photograph in which Mercer was sitting in the pocket station together with the officers. Elizabeth noticed that her friend Penny was also in the picture, and there was a look of disgust in her eyes. Elizabeth knew that in the court of law, Penny’s disdainful eyes wouldn’t be considered as evidence, but she was sure that she was the one who had murdered Peter Mercer. Elizabeth connected the dots, and she realized that John, Penny’s husband, knew about it, and for all those years he had not said a word to anybody. John knew that if Ian dug up the cemetery, then the skeleton of Peter would be found, which was why he went and killed the man. Penny was in a state of coma, and probably she wouldn’t have ever found out even if her name was linked to the Mercer murder. But John wanted to fight for her reputation; he didn’t want the world to remember her as a murderer. Also, deep down, John knew that Mercer had murdered his girlfriend, and so he didn’t feel guilty that he had been killed.
In The Thursday Murder Club’s ending, John confessed that he had killed Ian. He told Elizabeth and the others that they could go ahead and inform the authorities about it. He said that he needed to say goodbye to Penny, and Elizabeth knew what that meant. I believe John knew that Elizabeth would never come out of a coma, and he couldn’t bear not being around her. He knew that the world needed to know the truth, but he was not ready to leave his wife and go to prison. So John had only one option left: he decided that he and his beloved wife would leave the world together. I don’t know if he did the right thing or not, but he and Penny passed away peacefully, by each other’s side, bound by love until their last breath. Ibrahim gave a beautiful eulogy at their funeral, and he remembered them for the good Samaritans that they were. I think that Joanna, Joyce’s daughter, will buy the Cooper Chase property, which would mean that the residents could continue living there. That said, I believe that it is highly unlikely that Elizabeth, Ron, Ibrahim, and Joyce will sit idle for too long, and they will find themselves entangled in another murder mystery sooner rather than later.
