Netflix’s No. 1 Film Is a Enjoyable Thriller With a Weird Flaw

Each week, Netflix drops a listing of the highest 10 movies and TV exhibits dominating the platform. Last week, the highest movie on the platform was the unique thriller The Woman in Cabin 10, starring Keira Knightley as a journalist who witnesses a girl being thrown overboard on a luxurious yacht. 

In the movie based mostly on the novel by Ruth Ware, Knightley’s character, Lo, is invited aboard a mega yacht to write down a narrative a few rich couple, Richard and Anne Bullmer (Guy Pearce and Lisa Loven Kongsli), and their charitable deeds. Anne particularly requested Lo’s presence as a result of she admires her work. When Lo meets her, Anne confides in Lo that she plans to donate her billions of {dollars} to charity after her loss of life.

Warning: There are nothing however spoilers forward, so if you have not seen the film, don’t learn any additional.

On the primary night time of the voyage, Lo hears a scuffle within the room subsequent door — cabin 10! There’s a splash, and he or she realizes somebody has gone overboard. She panics and notifies the crew as a result of she noticed a girl in that very room earlier, however everybody on the ship is accounted for. She’s even informed that nobody ever stayed in that room, so she’s gaslighted into pondering that what she thought she heard was all in her head.

Lo principally turns into the world’s worst occasion visitor as a result of she’s imagined to be a fly on the wall throughout this tour, observing the Bullmers and their rich company; nevertheless, the complete journey ultimately turns into an interrogation as she tries to unravel what she noticed. “You are a bit of a downer, Lo. It’s kind of toxic,” one visitor, Grace, tells her after somebody truly tries to kill Lo and nobody believes her.

Both Lo and the viewers are on the identical facet on this occasion. We aren’t meant to assume she’s imagined issues, and we would like Lo to determine precisely what occurred as a result of she’s an investigative journalist; that is what she does. A bit greater than midway by the film, we be taught that the lady thrown overboard was Anne. 

Richard killed her, and the lady that Lo noticed in cabin 10 was an Anne lookalike that he employed, named Carrie (performed by a special actor named Gitte Witt), in order that she might impersonate Anne and ultimately signal over her life financial savings to Richard in her will. For the remainder of the journey, any time Anne graces the company together with her presence, it is truly Carrie in disguise, with Richard conserving her alive simply lengthy sufficient for her to signal over her fortune to him.

It’s defined that Richard used facial recognition know-how to scan social media so he might rent a girl who seems precisely like Anne. Every time Anne seems on display screen after her preliminary assembly with Lo, it is truly Carrie, who has shaved her head and is carrying sickly make-up to resemble the ailing Anne. But I’m imagined to consider that this group that is assembled on board, a bunch of a few of Anne’s closest buddies — do not realize that it is not truly Anne? She could look comparable, however her voice and construct are completely different, and we’re not questioning it? Are these the identical individuals who cannot understand that Clark Kent can be Superman? I have not learn the e-book, and maybe it supplies slightly extra element concerning the misleading identification theft that is required for this whole ruse to work, however as soon as the large twist is revealed, I used to be ready for the second when somebody within the movie lastly realized this. It by no means got here. 

The movie is expertly paced, an simply digestible 90-minute thrill trip that is pleasing, assuming this element would not hassle you. (Maybe you may discover different features of the movie that stoke your outrage.) While it is heavy on drama, there are moments of lightness because of actors like Hannah Waddingham, Paul Kaye, and Kaya Scodelario, who ham it up as rich, obnoxious company on the yacht, including slightly Knives Out aptitude to the ensemble. The movie could have its flaws, but it surely’ll do as a placeholder whereas we anticipate a brand new season of Knightley’s nice crime thriller Black Doves.