‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ movie review: Keira Knightley cruises along on this shiny bauble

A three-day cruise on a super yacht, a group of entitled suspects, a murder and an unreliable witness surely are the ingredients for a fun whodunit. The Woman in Cabin 10, adapted from Ruth Ware’s eponymous 2016 novel, unfortunately, is not very jolly, as everything feels rushed and one does not feel invested in the protagonist.

Laura (Keira Knightley) call me “Lo” (there should be a ban against silly nicknames, especially as one is yet to recover from Belly in The Summer I Turned Pretty), is a serious journalist writing about the plight of Kurdish women. After a traumatic event in which her source is killed for speaking to her, Lo decides to accept an invitation to go on the maiden voyage of a super yacht.

The yacht is owned by a billionaire, Richard Bullmer (Guy Pearce), whose oil heiress wife, Anne (Lisa Loven Kongsli), is suffering from cancer. The yacht, Aurora Borealis, will end its voyage with a fundraiser in Norway.

On the yacht are donors, board members and Bullmer’s friends, including wealthy, snarky, jaded Adam Sutherland (Daniel Ings), old money power couple, Thomas (David Morrissey), and Heidi (Hannah Waddingham), tech magnate Lars Jensen (Christopher Rygh), and his purely-for-optics influencer/model girlfriend, Grace (Kaya Scodelario), and a has-been rockstar Danny Tyler (Paul Kaye).

Lo comes on board and meets the guests/suspects, including ex-boyfriend, Ben (David Ajala), who is the official photographer for the cruise. Dr Mehta (Art Malik) takes care of Anne, while the Valkyrie-like security officer, Sigrid (Amanda Collin), chief steward, Karla (Pippa Bennett-Warner), and Captain John Addis (John Macmillan), represent the staff-side story.

To avoid Ben, with whom she had an ugly break-up, Lo steps into cabin 10 to see a woman come out of the shower, whom she later sees being thrown overboard. With the crew and guests insisting cabin 10 was empty, Lo finds herself mistrusting the evidence of her eyes.

Agatha Christie, who Ware counts as her inspiration, was able to create distinct characters with very few words. As readers, one never confused the drunken, failed writer with the socialist royal hiding his signet ring. When adapting Christie on screen, the trick is to cast known names as a shorthand to establishing the characters.

A similar principle is followed here, but with not as much of an effect as the characters remain cardboard cutouts, despite the cast’s best efforts. They seem to sneer and be generally nasty for no particular reason. Gugu Mbatha-Raw is wasted as Lo’s editor, Rowan. The mystery is solved somewhere in the middle of the movie, and then we have to slog through some teeth-gnashing scenery-chewing acting to reach the conclusion.

Director Simon Stone, who helmed the wonderfully meditative The Dig, has ensured excellent production values, including shooting on a $150 million yacht called the Savannah. And thanks to the short run time and Knightley’s gorgeous wardrobe, the trip does not seem such a drag.

The Woman in Cabin 10 is currently streaming on Netflix