The Reel Review
A journalist working on a story about a terminally ill Norwegian oil heiress and guests on her luxurious super-yacht finds her life in danger when she witnesses an unidentified body being thrown overboard while at sea, only to have no one onboard believe her. Keira Knightley, Guy Pearce and Hannah Waddingham star in this crime mystery based on Ruth Ware’s 2016 whodunnit.
The physically dazzling luxury yacht is the best part of this otherwise lackluster, plot hole-filled story, itself a feeble knockoff of an Agatha Christie mystery, complete with clichéd one-note characters that curiously, unlike a Christie story, never truly come under suspicion. Knightley does well enough despite the dull script, with Pearce phoning in his performance as the philanthropist’s husband and a woefully underutilized Waddingham (Ted Lasso) and David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) as a wealthy power couple. Anyone paying attention to a few key clues will start to figure out where something is amiss.
Once revealed, however, the story’s big twist sounds interesting for about two minutes, until we quickly realize just how ridiculous and implausible it all really is. Co-writer/director Simon Stone’s (The Dig) decision to change up the book’s story and water down its way spookier ending are odd choices. On top of that, it turns out that the main character possesses a laughable ability to swim long distances in frigid water while wearing heavy winter clothes and is pretty handy with a hatchet. As whodunnits go, The Woman in Cabin 10 is a silly, very average but nice-looking time waster.
REEL FACTS
• The Woman in Cabin 10 was filmed in the U.K. and in Hjørundfjorden, Norway on the Savannah, a $150 million, 274-foot super-yacht.
• Norwegian actress Lisa Loven Kongsli, who plays the wealthy dying philanthropist, recently starred in the WWII dramas Nr. 24 and Quisling: The Final Days, as well as portraying superhero Menalippe in the blockbusters Wonder Woman and Zack Snyder’s Justice League.
• Keira Knightley will next film Season 2 of the British spy action/thriller series Black Doves.
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