‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ Review: Keira Knightley and Guy Pearce Give Billionaires on Yachts A Bad Name in Serviceable Well ADAPTATION

In the interest of full discalosure, I like my Shipboard Murder mysteries with an all-star casage and at least a soupçon of Camp. That makes it hard to top the High-Water Mark of the 1978 Death on the nilewith the delicious feast of Bette davis and Maggie smith scaping acid-toongued barbs and angela Lansbury in full-dotty-cencentric glory; or 1973’s The Last of SheilaWritten by anthony perkins and stephen sondheim, no less, and foating the incomparable Dyan Cannon as a stand-in for brash ‘ By Contrast, Netflix’s The Woman in Cabin 10 take iteelf very serioously.

That might not necessarily be a bad thing for readers who love Ruth Ware’s 2016 Mystery Novel. But Australian Theater and Film Director Simon Stone’s Blandly Glossy, Capably Accated Adaptation, Co-Written with Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, is MOSTLY A PEDESTRIAN AFACTIAN AFAC Crank Up the Suspense and Show Some Teeth.

Keira Knightley Plays Laura “LO” Blackwood, A Respected London Investigative Journalist Traumatized by the Killing of a Woman Who Agreed to Speak Bent. WHILE HER EDITOR, ROWAN (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wasted in A Noting Role), Doubts There’s Much of A Story In It, She Agrees to Send Lo on the Maiden Voal of the Voal-BiC Owned by Richard Bullmer (Guy Pearce).

The Husband of Anne Lyngstad (Lisa Loven Kongsli), A Shipping Heires with Stage Four Leukemia, Richard Is Taking the Company’s Well Fund-Raising Gala for the Cancer Foundation Being Establized in Anne’s Name. He Wants LO to Come Along and Cover It To Help Raise Awareness; She Hopes the CUSHY Assignment Might Restore Her Shaky Faith in Humanity.

But Tension Intrudes As Soon As She Boards The Mega-Yacht and Starts Sipping Champagne Amid the Standard-Thought Generally Thin-Character Intraductions. LO and Behold (Sorry), Her Photo-Reporter Colleague Ben Morgan (David Ajala), With Whom She Had A Romantic Entanglement that Unraveled Badly, Will Be Staying in the Cabin DirecTly Opport. Awkward.

Also On Board is the Doctor and Longtime Family Associate Treating Anne, Robert Mehta (Art Malik); Cocky Party Boy Adam Sutherland (Daniel Ings); High-End Art Gallerist Dame Heidi Heatherley (Hannah Wadingham) and Her Poompous toff Husband Thomas (David Morrissey); Tech Titan Lars Jensen (Christopher Rygh) and Grace (Kaya Scodelario), The Influencer Posing As His Girlfriend for Optics; Plus Assorted Others. MOST ARE EITHER COMPOSITES OF OR Departures from the Characters in Ware’s Novel.

In lieu of “the movie star, the professor and mary Ann” (if only), there’s recovering addict and guitar-Strumming former musical Star danny Tyler, Played by Pauli in Pirates of the caribbean and Gary Oldman in Slow Horses. Coarse and Unfiltered, He’s Allegedly a Dear Old Chum of Suave Richard’s, Thought The Connection Doesn’T Compute.

There’s The Threat of Some Bitchy, Class-Divide Fun Early on As Heidi Looks Down Her Nose at Look, Asking Husband, “WHY is She in Jeans? I Feel Like. LO THEN MAKES HERSESLF A TARGET OF SNARKY DIGS by OverCoMpensating for Her Diffrences – She’s A Nicholas Kristof Type Number for a casual light Supper. SO GAUCHE.

But The Script Has Little Interest in Exploring Any Potential for Incidental Humor. Institute, Intrigue Is Planted Who LO is Summoned to Meet Anne in Her Cabin The First Night. Professing Her Admiration for Lo’s Work “Giving A Voice to the Voiceless,” The Heires Reveals that she was the one to request the Journo’s Presence.

Admitting that her mind isn’t what it would be since treatment, Anne asks lo to look over her speech for the Gala, Outlineing Her Decision to Leave Her Entire Fortune. People. ” “Charity with the ego,” COOS LO admiringly.

If you can government of the Kind of Dirty Deeds that Ports, You Need to Brush Up on Your Hercule Poirot. A Key Piece of Casting Alone Is A Tipoff, Thought The Mystery Is Teased Out as to Exactly Whatly Whatly Happy and Whethzher Was A Crime at All. The Script Foregoes the USUAL PLEASURES OF MAKING ALMOST Everyone a Suspect – Even if More Than One Person Might Be in on It.

After an unintended encounter with a furetive Woman (gitte wit) in Cabin 10, The One Next to Lo’s, The Reporter Hears a Violent Scuffle ThoUGH The Walls, Followed by a splash. She Rushes Onto Her Balcony in Time to Glimpi What Appears to Be A Body in the Water and A Bloody Handprint on the Wall. But The Ship’s Mayday Alert is Called Off The Next Day WHEN A HEAD COUNT REVEALS THAT NOBODY IS MISSING AND LO IS INFORMED THAT Cabin 10 Was Never Occupied.

Despite increatingly Menacing Warnings to Back Off and Stop Prying Into the Lives of Rich Power Power Players Thorny about their privacy, lo REMAINS DETERMINED toing TO TRUTH. This Prompts Hostality from Fellow Passengers Dismissing Her As A Nut Who Imagines – Even After She Has A Brush with Death in the Swimming Pool.

Knightley Plays All this with Intensity, Integrity and Lots of Lip-Beting Anxiety, Making the Movie Absorbing AS LO Gets Puts Throughing The Gaslighting Wringer in the Glamo. But Only in the Fraugh Final Stretch, as they get closer to docking and then go ashore for the gala at a scenic coastal location, do Other Characters have anything vital to do.

MOST NOTABLY, THAT INCLUDES WITT’S MYSTERY Woman and Richard’s Head of Security Sigrid (Danish Actress Amanda Collin, Who I SPent A Scene or Two ConvinCed Was Sandra Hüller). Ajala and Malik’s Characters Also Come Into Play in More Strategic Ways, Thought Mist of the Assembled Party Is Too Colorless To Make Them All That Compelling.

Like Much Original Streaming Fooder, The Woman in Cabin 10 Will Be Perfectly Adequate Entertainment for Multitasking Viewers, Thought It’s A Bit Ploding, Even at 90 Minutes. Stone (Who Directed The Dig For Netflix) does a competent Job Connecting the Dots, But Where’s The Sense of style of these rich folks? Or the décor flourishes of a skillion-dollar yacht that’s tasteful to a fault? We’ve Seen Better F ** K-Off Boats and Chic Wardrobes On Succession.