THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 – Review by Nadine Whitney
Simon Stone’s adaptation of Ruth Ware’s mystery novel The Woman in Cabin 10 is an embarrassment of embarrassments. The plot is unworkable and requires only a modicum of paying attention to be far ahead of the protagonist, investigative journalist Laura “Lo” Blackwood (Keira Knightley). The outrageous nature of the thriller will lead the audience to question how on earth the perpetrators of the crime thought they would get away with it.
Laura is a journalist for The Guardian who has filed a story that had deadly consequences for one of her sources. The article is a success, but Lo is feeling the weight of the aftermath. Unable to take a break due to her workaholic nature and her fear that downtime will increase her emotional stress, Lo chooses to attend the maiden voyage of the super yacht Aurora Borealis to cover the announcement of a charitable foundation’s plans to devote big time money to cancer patients. Lo usually wouldn’t be interested in making extremely wealthy people seem palatable to the general public, but perhaps what she needs is some champagne and fluff on a luxurious sail to Norway.
Shipping heiress Anne Bullmer (Lisa Loven Kongsli) has stage four cancer. Her final wish before she passes to announce her charitable foundation. Her husband Richard (Guy Pearce) has invited a who’s who roster of narcissists on the sail from England to Norway. Lo almost immediately wrong foots herself with the sniping cohort by wearing the wrong clothes and not being aware of ship etiquette. Apart from herself there is another journalist who is also her ex-boyfriend, Ben Morgan (David Ajala). He’s there to photograph the proceedings which makes him a touch more popular with the image obsessed passengers than Lo is. Art patrons and gallerists Heidi and Thomas Heatherley (Hannah Waddingham and David Morrissey) can barely contain their sneers. Influencer Grace Phillips (Kaya Scodelario) and professional party goer Adam Sutherland (Daniel Ings) head straight for the champagne. Only Anne’s personal physician Dr. Robert Mehta (Art Malik) appears to sympathise with Lo being somewhat overwhelmed by the whole shebang. Later, Danny Tyler (Paul Kay) a famous ageing rockstar with addiction issues joins the group.
Of course, they all adore “darling, Anne” and don’t question her absence from the gatherings on board because of her illness and fatigue. Lo meets her and finds her to be sincere and concerned with leaving a lasting positive legacy with none of the ego expected considering her vacuous inner circle. Anne also surprises Lo with a speech that outlines her intentions for the foundation.
Just this much description of the plot is enough for most people to have already pieced together what will happen in terms of the mystery. Add this to Lo’s conviction that there is a woman in cabin 10 next to hers who has fallen overboard and the guests and crew deciding Lo is a toxic attention seeker trying to ruin the voyage and it requires next to zero guesswork to grasp what’s happening. Yet, the film insists on the audience following Lo’s painful slowness to reveal what they already know.
By the ludicrous third act where bodies begin to pile up in a ridiculous manner and the inattentiveness of the guests reaches unfathomable levels, The Woman in Cabin 10 stumbles into accidental parody. There is a plethora of these types of “woman gaslit into being considered hysterical” movies. The primary one being Hitchcock’s 1938 classic The Lady Vanishes but a rash of “Hitchcock but stupid” movies appeared relatively recently such as Joe Wright’s disastrous 2021 offering The Woman in the Window and Tate Taylor’s subpar The Girl on the Train. An actor of note usually leads the cast: Amy Adams in Wright’s film and Emily Blunt in Taylor’s film. This time it’s Keira Knightley who is put through the wringer and the result is another eye-rolling affair.
The Woman in Cabin 10 is an excruciating fumble that piles on turgid and obvious plot points until it gives up on those and descends into what could politely be called “batshittery”. An already tired formula that does nought to make it distinct. Perhaps it’s time to stop treating the “Woman” like an idiot and extend that courtesy to the audience.
