The popularity of Agatha Christie’s brand of twisted, twisted crime thrillers has not waned since the height of her career, as her work continues to inspire both direct adaptations and creative imitators. “The Woman in Cabin 10” is based on the novel by Ruth Ware, a prominent British novelist and an established collaborator in Christie’s prose. The Woman in Cabin 10 adaptation has certainly been greenlit in the wake of several recent successes that share Christie’s DNA. In addition to Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot mystery series, Rian Johnson’s “Knives Out” series plays with the Christie-style formula with a deft touch of self-awareness.
The Woman in Cabin 10 has no ambitions to deviate from the formula. Rather, it shares a similar premise to Branagh’s recent adaptation of Death of the Nile. Even if there are some clues revealed through the use of advanced technology, The Woman in Cabin 10 is clear enough that it could have easily been written in the 1930s when Christie’s novels were at their peak. “The Woman in Cabin 10” may not offer anything new to those steeped in the genre, and its logic is flimsy at best. However, the tight runtime, strong performances, and limited setting of “The Woman in Cabin 10” make it a somewhat engaging, if unmemorable, viewing experience.
Keira Knightley plays Laura Blacklock, a well-respected journalist who suffered from PTSD after a source for one of her stories was murdered. Laura’s latest assignment is to cover the opening of a luxury cruise ship captained by charismatic aristocrat Richard Bulmer (Guy Pearce) and his terminally ill wife, Anne Bulmer (Lisa Lovin Kongsley), who plan to use the proceeds for medical research.
Laura is out of place among a crowd of wealthy benefactors, but grows more suspicious of her own company when she witnesses a woman being thrown to her death at night. Although Laura is unable to identify her mysterious victim, she finds that none of her fellow guests saw the crime being committed. As her evidence begins to disappear, Laura begins to suspect that she is being gaslighted so that the crime can be covered up.
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Christie’s stories often center around brilliant detectives, but The Woman in Cabin 10 makes a smart decision to use a reporter as the protagonist. Laura knows how to search through evidence and take notes on suspicious activity, but she rarely puts her life in danger. In fact, her brief experience with a life-or-death scenario left her permanently traumatized. Finding a way to make a hero so smart and out of his depth is no easy feat, but Laura is an effective window into the story thanks to Knightley’s strong performance. She’s believable as a seasoned professional, but it’s also clear that Laura is inherently skeptical about wealthy businessmen who celebrate their private fortunes on the grounds that it’s for a supposed charitable cause.
“The Woman in Cabin 10” also knows that such tight ambiguity works best if the characters are stuck in an enclosed space where no outside help can be provided, and the cruise ship is within open waters where they are not moderated by an external force of justice. The film goes to great lengths to show that Laura is isolated (even her contact with the Coast Guard is denied), and that everyone on the ship could be part of the conspiracy.
Although there is not much of a mystery in “The Woman in Cabin 10,” the identity of the killer is initially unclear due to the general hostility felt by the crew and guests toward an investigative reporter like Laura. It’s clearly an outside force that has come to analyze their sanctuary, and they gradually lose patience when she seems stressed.
Although its brisk 95 minutes don’t leave much room for levity, “The Woman in Cabin 10” doesn’t find much time to develop its cast of characters. Much of the fun in any crime is the swapping of stories between different suspects, but the different guests in “The Woman in Cabin 10” are fairly interchangeable and seem to be identified only by general characteristics. David Ajala is given the best role as Ben, a photographer who is romantically involved with Laura. While the film doesn’t have much time to explore why their relationship deteriorates, the strong chemistry between Ajala and Knightley adds just the right amount of tension.
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The most entertaining supporting performance is Daniel Ings as eccentric musician Adam, who feels like the kind of unusual character who would be invited to a closed-door event. The rest of the cast doesn’t have the same capacity for silliness, but based on the film’s surprisingly strong satire of wealth, Ings’ performance doesn’t feel out of place. It’s odd that talented actors like Hannah Waddingham and Art Malek are left to sneer and sneer without any hint of dimension, but Pearce is at least given the chance to chew the scenery. He may be one of the best actors of his generation, but those who know his villainous roles in “The Count of Monte Cristo” or “Iron Man 3” know he’s not afraid to take a beating.
Even if there is little mystery about what happened or who the perpetrators are, The Woman in Cabin 10 finds Hitchcockian suspense in the idea of being the sole witness to a crime that cannot be proven. Fortunately, the film never tries to suggest that Laura’s point of view can’t be trusted, as Knightley is able to make the audience feel the same frustration and confusion as the character. However, The Woman in Cabin 10 fails to maintain this suspense by the time it ends in a somewhat routine manner.
Netflix is now responsible for producing hundreds of new films each year, some of which this year, like Nouvelle Vague and Jay Kelly, will be released in select theaters in order to compete for awards. Although this has blurred the line between what is “cinematic” and what is intended for the small screen, The Woman in Cabin 10 is the kind of modest, straightforward work of passive entertainment that might have been considered a “TV movie” had it been released outside of the streaming era. There’s nothing wrong with this approach, as similar crime stories have inspired fun and engaging TV movies. With reasonable expectations in mind, mystery fans are unlikely to regret tuning in to “The Woman in Cabin 10” to solve the mystery.
