Picture this: A cup of steaming hot chocolate in hand, you snuggle up in your warm quilt on your favourite couch by the window and watch the rains hit the greens outside making it even more verdant. That same fuzzy feeling of familiarity and comfort is what you experience when you watch The Thursday Murder Club.

Based on the best-selling 2020 whodunit by Richard Osman (who has gone on to write a few more in the series), The Thursday Murder Club takes you into the world of old-school sleuthing. One which relies on both smarts and intellect to fit together the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to solve more than one murder, without having to rely on Gen-Z-coded cinema loaded with high-octane car chases and gravity-defying action sequences. If one were to quote a journalistic analogy, The Thursday Murder Club is the equivalent of good ol’ shoe leather reporting.

For starters, this Chris Columbus film will have you at its casting. Columbus — the man behind defining films like Mrs. Doubtfire, the Home Alone franchise and a few films in both the Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson universes — assembles together star veterans of the game. Helen Mirren, Ben Kingsley, Pierce Brosnan and Celia Imrie are enough to make you tune in. It is no surprise that they manage to turn even some of the most pedestrian bits of The Thursday Murder Club into binge-worthy gold.

Now playing in select theatres worldwide before it streams on Netflix globally on August 28, The Thursday Murder Club starts off, well, with ‘The Thursday Murder Club’. That is what a trio of septuagenarians — Mirren’s Elizabeth, Ron played by Brosnan, and Kingsley’s Ibrahim — in an upscale old-age retirement facility keep themselves occupied (as well as sharp and on their toes) with every Thursday. When we meet them, the three are deep into attempting to piece together the motive and modus operandi of a cold case that took place in the 1950s. One, which as we learn later, is linked to a present case that, hitting as close to home as it can, The Thursday Murder Club finds itself in.

Joining the group quite early is a new entrant at the Coopers Chase luxury retirement home — Joyce (Celia Imrie). Joyce’s experience as a former nurse comes in handy at the club, which abbreviates itself to ‘TMC’.

It is but a coincidence that saving ‘maati’ and ‘manush’ comes into play soon enough. The retirees at Coopers Chase are up in arms over co-owner Ian Ventham (David Tennant) wanting to sell off the property and subsequently evict them. In the middle of organised protests — Ron was a trade unionist in his prime — at least two murders take place and the club, led by Elizabeth, quickly swings into action. Aiding the quartet is a wet-behind-the-ears but earnest cop Donna (Naomi Ackie).

Instantly reminding one of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple mysteries — especially with Mirren’s Elizabeth taking the lead — with old-world Sherlockian undertones and even a little bit of Only Murders in the Building thrown in, The Thursday Murder Club unfolds at a leisurely — but not languid — pace.

Though Mirren holds centrestage — having a blast with meta references to both her Oscar-winning turn as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen and as a secret agent in the Red movie franchise — the other actors, too, have plenty to chew on. Brosnan’s boisterous act brings on the laughs, as does Kingsley scribbling on his little notepad as the sleuthing gets deep. Celia Imrie brings ‘relish’ to her part of a cake-baking sharp-eyed amateur detective.

There is very little that is dark or murky — despite the series of murders — in this film, something which may not suit hardcore fans of the genre. The lightness of touch is, however, deliberate, with Thomas Newman’s soothing score adding to the familiar beats.

The subtle social commentary — ageing with dignity (or not) — hits home, as does some winning supporting acts. Chief among them is Tom Ellis as Ron’s son Jason, a former boxer now given to shaking a leg on Dancing with the Stars, while Jonathan Pryce as Elizabeth’s husband Stephen brings twinkly-eyed humour to his role. David Tennant as the shady Ian Ventham is deliciously devilish.

Preceded by the likes of the aforementioned Only Murders in the Building (which has Season 5 on the way next month), the Knives Out franchise and Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot, The Thursday Murder Club doesn’t break any new ground in the genre. It is content to keep it familiar and fuzzy. Which is something that sometimes (and now, quite often) we all need.