The Woman in Cabin 10, 2025.
Directed by Simon Stone.
Starring Keira Knightley, Guy Pearce, David Ajala, Gitte Witt, Art Malik, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Hannah Waddingham, Kaya Scodelario, David Morrissey, Daniel Ings, Christopher Rygh, Pippa Bennett-Warner, John Macmillan, Paul Kaye, Amanda Collin, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Charles Craddock, Ayọ̀ Owóyẹmi-Peters, Síofra Ní Éilí, Holly Godliman, Kasper Hilton-Hille, Chengxi Fu, Antonia Ganeva, Ingar Helge Gimle, Jaouhar Ben Ayed, and Alyth Ross.
SYNOPSIS:
A travel writer stumbles upon a gruesome secret while traveling aboard a luxury cruise ship.
Encouraged by her co-workers to take on a lighter story and/or rest, journalist Laura Blacklock (Keira Knightley) decides to accept an invitation aboard a luxury cruise alongside rich CEO types coming together to raise awareness for a form of cancer that has affected one of their wives. Of course, with a title like The Woman in Cabin 10 (clearly based on an airport novel before one presses play), that’s mostly an excuse for a murder mystery, shady behavior, implausible twists, and even well-meaning characters touched with a case of enraging stupidity to keep the attempts at suspense going.
Richard Bullmer (Guy Pearce) has organized a Norwegian yacht cruise to pay tribute to his terminally ill wife, Anne (Lisa Loven Kongsli), inviting a diverse group of characters, including stoned rock stars, social media influencers, a family friend doctor, and others. That means it’s also surprising how many noteworthy names in the ensemble will basically have nothing to do, other than temporarily have suspicion cast upon them. And for as much as everything feels off as soon as Laura arrives, whether it be simply not fitting in with this elitist group or the fact that her ex-boyfriend photographer Ben (David Ajala), is among the invitees, the week of relaxation really goes off the rails when she glimpses someone being thrown overboard in the middle of the night.
However, everyone struggles to believe Laura, as it’s well documented that something went wrong on her last journalistic trip, under the assumption that a woman died because of her actions. It’s unclear and swiftly hobbled over without providing any clarity, simply because it doesn’t matter: this is an unreliable protagonist meant to be doubted. The problem is that nothing about this narrative makes Laura appear crazy. If anything, there is hesitation even to discuss the setup further, since, even if the how and why remain a mystery, there is never a question as to who the villain is here.
Viewers are taken through the typical plot beats, with an unknown person trying to deter Laura from investigating further via cryptic notes intended to strike fear, and one admittedly solid jump scare of attempted murder. She is led to believe that no one was staying in cabin 10 and that her mind is playing tricks on her. As for the supporting cast, every one of them is a mixture of offbeat and quirky, but unlikely to be behind this conspiracy. The lone exception is Anne’s head of security, Sigrid, with Amanda Collin delivering an uptight, no-nonsense, steely performance that weighs information in a manner far more believable than everyone else in this mostly absurd film. And there are some truly ludicrous swerves here, one of which is so goofy and unrealistic that it’s explained away through state-of-the-art AI in such a brief manner that it’s practically begging viewers to overlook it, acknowledging its absurdity.
There is a message emphasizing the importance of women sticking together when faced with suspicious and untrustworthy wealthy men, in service of a fairly lame and uneventful murder mystery, save for one bizarre reveal. It’s also difficult to say that there isn’t some entertainment fund within this knowingly junky material. Still, co-writer/director Simon Stone’s The Woman in Cabin 10 (penned alongside Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, based on Emma Frost’s adaptation of the novel by Ruth Ware) is a tedious exercise in waiting for that “how” to be revealed. What makes that frustrating is that everything else here is obvious and bland.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
