Pierce Brosnan's Star-Studded 2025 Murder Mystery Movie Is One Of Netflix's Hidden Gems

If you're an avid reader, you might be familiar with the term "cozy mystery," typically used to describe mystery and thriller novels that have a quaint setting or wonderfully eccentric cast of characters while also focusing on something as dark as, you know, murder. If you're already a cozy mystery fan or this sounds particularly appealing, you might want to check out "The Thursday Murder Club," director Chris Columbus's Netflix adaptation of a massively popular cozy mystery book that stars Pierce Brosnan, Helen Mirren, and Ben Kingsley, just to name a few. 

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Richard Osman (itself the first in a series), "The Thursday Murder Club" centers around Elizabeth Best (Mirren), retired union leader Ron Ritchie (Brosnan), and psychiatrist Professor Ibrahim Arif (Kingsley), who all live in the same retirement community and pass the time by discussing cold cases every Thursday. After welcoming former nurse Joyce Meadowcroft (Celia Imrie) into their ranks, the foursome is quite shaken up when developers and businessmen Tony Curran (Geoff Bell) and his partner Ian Ventham (David Tennant) both turn up dead amidst a plan to possibly transform the entire retirement community, Coopers Chase, into a massive new apartment building.

Spurred by this extremely warm case, the titular murder club follows leads that put them in potential danger, especially as they close in on the likely perpetrator, crime boss Bobby Tanner (Richard E. Grant). "The Thursday Murder Club" is wry, inexplicably warm, and incredibly fun to watch — so consider queuing it up on a rainy Sunday. Before that, though, it's interesting to note that Columbus and his cast actually brought their past experiences as directors and actors to the set, and according to Columbus, it's a testament to his cast that the movie is so enjoyable.

In a discussion with The New York Times, Chris Columbus, Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, and Pierce Brosnan all sat down with interviewer Melena Ryzik — with Celia Imrie calling to chat with the gang over the phone — and Columbus said something incredibly surprising. Obviously, the surprising thing here isn't that Columbus has considerable experience working with venerated British performers of a certain age (he previously helmed the first two "Harry Potter" films), but he made a truly jarring pronouncement about returning to England for this particular movie.

"'Thursday Murder Club" resembles 'Potter' in a few ways," Columbus said before clarifying that the Brits are particular sticklers about their work. As he put it:

"Working with people like [the 'Potter' stars] Maggie Smith or Alan Rickman or Richard Harris, there was the opportunity to see the kind of professionalism that those actors brought to the set, by being British. It's a little more common now, but in 2000, most of those actors did television, stage, and film — they could do two or three takes, and you had what you needed."

Conversely, Columbus said that he was "shocked by the laziness of American actors" when he started working in the states again. "I say that with respect to a lot of American actors, but that kind of muscle memory didn't exist," he clarified. "So, for me to be able to work with actors of that caliber [on 'The Thursday Murder Club'] was just staggering. I can't talk about how wonderful it is, as a director, not to have to do 25 takes." (Brosnan basically confirmed that this is how things went, adding, "It was straight to the play.")

Despite having an obviously great experience working on "The Thursday Murder Club," Chris Columbus said he was hesitant to take the project in the first place. "I never had any desire to do a murder mystery," he told Melena Ryzik, saying they're "either procedural and very cold, or over-the-top, way too big in terms of performance. This one had incredibly sharp British humor, which I respond to, and an emotional complexity that you don't usually see." As for the cast, they brought their own talents — and, perhaps, perceived talents — to the Netflix film.

Helen Mirren, for her part, has played a detective before — in the British show "Prime Suspect" — but described retired MI6 officer Elizabeth Best as "less neurotic" and slightly different: "Maybe she did have the same misogynistic stuff to deal with. But she's more centered." Pierce Brosnan added a humorous anecdote about his previous appearance in the Agatha Christie adaptation "The Mirror Crack'd" alongside Elizabeth Taylor: "No dialogue. Just my head on her bosoms."

As for whether or not they'd succeed as detectives in real life, Mirren wryly said yes because she loves "Dateline," while Ben Kingsley provided a little more data to back it up. "I'm fascinated by the human condition. I know this sounds sacrilegious, but I tend not to watch a great deal of drama," the Oscar-winning actor admitted. "I take in the drama of life, and hopefully translate it as an actor into a story," he explained, clarifying that he'd make a good detective or psychiatrist — like his character in "The Thursday Murder Club" — but that he would "not make a very good bus driver," adding, "I know my limitations."

"The Thursday Murder Club" is streaming on Netflix now.