The Woman in Cabin 10

Netflix

Netflix has debuted a new movie full of big stars, adapting an exceptionally well-read murder mystery novel. And it is terrible.

The movie is The Woman in Cabin 10, which stars Oscar nominee Keira Knightley, who also leads Black Doves, a rather good Netflix spy series. Knightley is joined by Guy Pearce and Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham. All the pieces for a good feature. But its current Rotten Tomatoes score with critics? A devastating 19%.

That’s a far cry from the 4/5 Amazon rating for The Woman in Cabin 10 novel, written by Ruth Ware back in 2017, which became an instant New York Times bestseller at release. While critic reviews are still coming in (I did see this go from a 13% to a 19% while writing this) clearly, Netflix has a miss on their hands when this should have been an easy layup. It wasn’t some ambitious original feature they had to script from scratch, but the very good source material was lying right there. Here’s the synopsis:

“While on board a luxury yacht for a travel assignment, a journalist witnesses a passenger thrown overboard late at night, only to be told that it didn’t happen, as all passengers and crew are accounted for. Despite no one believing her, she continues to look for answers, putting her own life in danger.”

It’s an unwelcome turn for Knightley, who stars in the 92% rated Black Doves, which will return in 2026 after being renewed for season 2. Knightley has two Oscar nominations to her name for Pride and Prejudice and The Imitation Game. It’s easy to see why she would have wanted to star in this adaptation, but bad luck here.

What’s wrong with The Woman in Cabin 10? Here’s a sampling from critics:

• CBR – “The Woman in Cabin 10 might be a fine Friday night watch at home, but even if its relatable protagonist and classic references can’t save it from drowning in the deep end.”
• The Wrap – “While depicting the wealthy as bored and indifferent to the suffering around them is a good start, there’s a problem when the audience shares that bored indifference to the story you’re telling.”
• Digital Spy – “Has Laura really witnessed a murder or is she dealing with unresolved trauma? By the end of The Woman in Cabin 10, the bigger question is whether you even care.”

There are a few positive reviews, some saying the mystery is engrossing and that it has a very good cast. With that stack of talent, it’s easy to imagine they aren’t the problem.

A low score doesn’t necessarily mean the film is totally sunk. There are rare exceptions like the 17% scored The Kissing Booth spawning two sequels. There are, of course, also epic disasters like the massively budgeted The Electric State and its 15% score.

There is another book to adapt that comes after this one, The Woman in Suite 11. Whether that gets made or not depends almost exclusively on The Woman in Cabin 10 here, which is out today.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.