What’s It About

While on a luxury cruise for a travel assignment, a journalist witnesses a passenger tossed overboard late one night, only to be told that she must have dreamed it, as all passengers are accounted for. Despite not being believed by anyone onboard, she continues to look for answers, putting her own life in danger.

MOVIESinMO REVIEW

Netflix constantly releases these thrillers that seem expensive yet cheap, and The Woman in Cabin 10 fits the mold. The streamer got Keira Knightley and Guy Pearce for this one, probably believing their names alone would keep our interest. Spoiler alert: it takes more than famous talent to truly make a mystery feel mysterious. Director Simon Stone adapted Ruth Ware’s 2016 novel, and honestly, that is very apparent. This feels exactly like a boring airport book story that one picks up at the airport to read quickly, or very likely to forget immediately, only leaving the book in the airplane as one exits. There is nothing wrong with the occasional airport book, but a movie needs just that little bit more than this movie does. The premise sounded at least good enough. Knightley plays Laura Blacklock, a journalist who everyone calls Lo. She’s really good at her job, the type who walks into the office and people immediately start congratulating her. After finishing a big story about women getting treated badly, her boss suggests she take a break. Instead, Lo accepts an invitation to cover a fancy three-day cruise on a super expensive yacht. A dying billionaire named Anne Lyngstad wants to start a cancer charity, and her husband Richard, that’s where Pearce comes in, is hosting a bunch of rich people to raise money. Sounds relaxing, right? Wrong. Everything goes sideways the moment Lo gets on the boat. First, she runs into her ex-boyfriend Ben, who’s there taking pictures for the event. Awkward. Then she meets all these wealthy passengers who are either boring, rude, or both. There’s a snooty artist, a rock star, some social media person, and a few others who barely matter to the story. The movie introduces way too many people who end up doing absolutely nothing important. Here’s where things get interesting, or at least try to. Lo notices someone staying in the cabin next to hers, cabin number ten. She sees cigarette butts on the balcony, accidentally walks in on a blonde woman getting out of the shower, and generally knows somebody’s there. Then one night, she wakes up hearing a fight. She rushes to her balcony and watches a body get thrown into the ocean. She calls for help, tells everyone what she saw, and then … no one believes her. The crew maintains that cabin ten was empty the whole time. All of the passengers are accounted for and unharmed. The cabin looks pristine, as if no one had ever stayed there. Everyone begins to treat Lo like she’s crazy. The ship’s doctor even interjects and suggests she is suffering from trauma because, according to him, Lo witnessed something bad in her last job. This is a detail mentioned in the film but never fully explained, which is just sloppy writing. This is where a well-thought-out mystery element would have unfolded well. We should be questioning what reality is, who is lying, and what actually happened. But The Woman in Cabin 10 fumbles everything that could make it exciting. The biggest problem? It’s way too obvious who the bad guy is. You could figure it out in the first twenty minutes if you’re paying even a little attention. The movie doesn’t even try to hide it well. Knightley makes the most of a limited role. She paints Lo as strong and original, with a sense that she cannot be told she is crazy when she hits this spot, even when others are. While the performance is solid, I don’t feel the character is ever fully realized. We gather that there is potentially some pretty heavy stuff happening below the surface, but the screenplay treats her trauma like a checkbox rather than nurturing it to arrive at a point of character development. The movie clearly opens a door around the concept of her nightmares and anxiety, then closes the door and continues. The supporting cast has it even worse. Pearce plays Richard as transparently shady from the beginning, killing any suspense over his involvement in what is going on. The rest of the supporting cast members are either fabulously wealthy and irritating or so forgettable that you will have no idea how to remember them five minutes after the credits. Hannah Waddingham shows up as a stuck-up artist who makes mean comments about Lo’s clothes. David Ajala plays the ex-boyfriend who exists only to move the plot forward by doing stupid things at convenient moments. None of these characters feel like actual person; they’re just types standing around waiting for the story to happen to them. The first half moves pretty fast, at least. Stone keeps things rolling along, and the yacht setting looks nice and expensive. There’s something naturally creepy about being trapped on a boat in the middle of the ocean, and the movie uses that a little bit. But once we hit the middle point and get a major reveal, everything falls apart. The last half drags on forever, trying to stretch out a simple story way longer than it needs to be. What really kills this movie is how dumb everyone acts. Lo keeps finding evidence, but it disappears. People try to hurt her, but nobody takes her seriously. The crew and passengers act like they’ve never heard of basic logic. And when the truth is finally revealed, which occurs with about half an hour to go in the film, it’s explained away with some nonsense about advanced technology that the movie briefly mentions for about ten seconds. It’s as if the writers understood that their twist was absurd and just wanted us to accept it and move on. The ending tries to build tension with Lo sneaking around, getting captured, and eventually confronting the villain. But by this point, we’ve been watching for over an hour and a half, and there are no surprises left. The last scene in this greenhouse with the hanging lights is dark, except so dark that you can hardly see anything at all.  Perhaps that was intentional, like the film acknowledged we would not want to witness how ludicrous it had become. Don’t misunderstand me, The Woman in Cabin 10 isn’t mishandled to a ridiculous extent. It’s fast enough that you probably won’t bail on it halfway through. Knightley is enough of a faithful performer that you feel at least somewhat invested in the outcome of Lo’s fate. And if you’re super tired or just want something playing in the background while you fold laundry, it’ll do the job. But that’s not exactly high praise. This is the kind of movie that used to play on cable at two in the morning, the type you’d watch just to see how it ends, not because you actually cared. Netflix seems to specialize in these movies that look good enough to click on, star people you recognize, but never deliver anything memorable. You’ll watch it, maybe enjoy parts of it, then completely forget about it by next week. At ninety-five minutes, at least it doesn’t waste too much of your time. But it doesn’t respect your intelligence either. The mystery has an obvious solution, the characters act frustratingly, and it simply feels like it was made by a group of people who thought that simply hitting familiar plot points was enough. The Woman in Cabin 10 had potential, a locked-room mystery on a luxury yacht, and a very solid lead performance. But weak writing, transparent plotting, and characters who act like they’ve never seen a thriller before sink this cruise before it leaves the dock. Watch it if you need background noise. Skip it if you want something that’ll actually keep you guessing.

OUR RATING – A LUXURIOUS 4