The Thursday Murder Club is a delight. The only hashtag I love more than #DirectedbyWomen is #Eldersrock. This movie has elders rocking the scene in so many ways. It’s a cozy whodunnit set in a retirement home.

The Thursday Murder Club is one of many social groups in the retirement home. They get together on Thursday afternoon and work on cold cases from the files of former policewoman Penny (Susan Kirkby). Unfortunately Penny is in a coma, but Elizabeth (Helen Mirren), Ron (Pierce Brosnan), and Ibrahim (Ben Kingsley) are carrying on without her.

Very soon they are joined by newcomer Joyce (Celia Imrie).

Elizabeth’s husband Stephen (Jonathan Pryce) has dementia and mostly plays chess in their flat while she runs around solving crimes. His chess habits become important in solving the crimes. Ron has a son who is a celebrity (Tom Ellis). Everyone goes all googly when he’s around and want to take selfies with him. Joyce’s daughter (Ingrid Oliver) is a financial whiz.

There are rumors the owners of the retirement home want to sell. Then the two owners they know about, Ian Ventham (David Tennant) and Tony Curran (Geoff Bell), are murdered! Almost faster than they hear the news of the murders, Elizabeth is organizing the team to solve them.

Elizabeth has a knack for finding just the person they need to unravel a crime. Joyce, for example, was a former trauma nurse.

Elizabeth befriends a police woman, PC Donna de Freitas (Naomi Ackie). This gives the murder club insider information on the cases. Donna’s boss DCI Hudson (Daniel Mays) totally underestimates the old folks, but she sees how sharp they are.

The club investigates the murders and also the retirement home. What will happen now that the owners are gone? That’s how they discover a third owner, Bobby Tanner (Richard E. Grant), a man who hasn’t been seen for years.

The movie lasts almost two hours to give all these characters time to develop individual personalities and to plan some clever ways to solve the crimes. It is based on a novel by Richard Osman. The screenplay was written by Katy Brand and Suzanne Heathcote. Chris Columbus directed. There’s a lot of complaining online because the movie isn’t exactly like the novel. My attitude is the book is always better, so let’s just accept that fact and move along.

The Thursday Murder Club is tidy. Everything introduced into the story is there for a reason – everything from flower deliveries to Polish construction workers to people in a coma who never have any lines to say. Mysteries often have red herrings and false leads, but this one is not plotted that way. Oh, it has secrets and surprises, but not misleading ones.

The film was funny and crammed with warm and charming little moments. There was a scene on a bus where Joyce explained to Elizabeth what a text with WTF meant. There was a scene where Helen Mirren’s costume made her look like Queen Elizabeth. There was a lovely scene with Elizabeth and Stephen dancing during one of his good days. This group of actors are magic together.

The film also has cake and water aerobics and llamas. It’s clever action with a delightful cast who look like they are having a blast. I thought it was wonderful and will probably watch it again.

You can see it on Netflix. Have you seen it already? What did you think of it?