'As a Thursday Murder Club book fanatic the film was a huge disappointment'
For anyone who has read The Thursday Murder Club book, prepare to be left frustrated.
The Thursday Murder Club is now on Netflix and the film is a highly-anticipated adaptation of Richard Osman's 2020 novel.
It was my mum who first recommended the book to me. "The characters are so relatable," she said. "I can picture them so clearly." Already a fan of Osman's quick wit, I was keen to see whether my mum's words rang true.
I too agreed that each character came to life so vividly off the page that I'd created a version of each of them, from their physical appearance to their sense of style. The relatability of the characters is what brought comfort and over the course of the rest of the book series, I fell more deeply in love with them.
With this in mind, I desperately wanted the film to be brilliant, living up to the book that had achieved the difficult task of making me smile at one moment, yet leave me in tears the next.
I was therefore heartbroken when, after watching the film, I realised it just wasn't meant to be and the book should have been left alone.
Firstly, when I saw the cast list for the film adaptation, I was concerned that maybe it was, dare I say, a bit TOO Hollywood.
I am not the first to complain about the casting of Pierce Brosnan as Ron, but I also found Henry Lloyd-Hughes just did not live up to the Bodgan I'd created in my mind.
That being said, Helen Mirren and Celia Imrie's embodiments of Elizabeth Best and Joyce Meadowcroft were spot on - as was the British humour.
Casting aside, there were too many deviations from the book, including Bogdan's ultimate fate.
Without giving too much away, Bogdan's history was not given the time it deserved and thus the film's ending is completely different to that in the original source material.
Similarly, some heartbreaking moments from the book, including Father Mackie's (Joseph Marcell) tragic secret, were omitted from the film - another wasted opportunity.
What could have been an emotionally hard-hitting and captivating cinematic experience turned out to be, in my opinion, a cringeworthy cosy crime drama.
While Osman has defended the book and its film adaptation as completely separate entities, readers may be gearing up for disappointment.
The Thursday Murder Club is on Netflix