The Woman in Cabin 10 review: Keira Knightley’s whodunnit sinks without a trace

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A star rating of 2 out of 5.

Stories about groups of people solving crimes have been popular in fiction for ages – even before the days of early mystery writers like Agatha Christie – and filmmakers love them.

It lets shows feature a large, colorful group of characters, often over-the-top and dramatic, keeping viewers guessing about who might be responsible for something – but what if there’s actually no crime to solve?

Join investigative journalist Keira Knightley aboard the luxurious yacht Aurora Borealis. She feels out of place among the wealthy passengers, who are all major donors eagerly awaiting a significant announcement from the yacht’s philanthropic owners, Guy Pearce and his wife, who is seriously ill.

The voyage starts smoothly, though journalist Knightley is annoyed to discover her ex-boyfriend, photographer David Ajala, is also on board. But when she overhears a struggle in a nearby cabin and what sounds like someone falling into the water, she quickly realizes something is very wrong.

I immediately alerted the crew to search the water with a spotlight, just in case. Thankfully, they did a head count and confirmed everyone was present. Plus, there were absolutely no signs of anything wrong in the cabin – and honestly, no one was even planning on sleeping down there tonight anyway.

People wonder if she’s simply imagining the fight, particularly when her ex-boyfriend reveals a past trauma from a previous journalism job. However, Keira is determined to uncover the truth and find out who is hiding something.

Let me tell you about the characters! We’ve got Pearce, who clearly has more money than sense, and his staff who seem to move like robots. Then there’s Art Malik as the doctor – he always looks a bit downcast. We also meet a couple of gallery owners, David Morrissey and Hannah Waddingham, who seem to enjoy a drink or two. Daniel Ings plays the typical arrogant male model, Kaya Scodelario is a bit of a dizzy social media personality, Paul Kaye is this wonderfully eccentric rock star who feels like he stepped out of a cartoon, and finally, there’s Christopher Rygh, a really quiet but powerful tech guy – a big name in AI and facial recognition. Quite the cast, right?

Okay, so the director, Simon Stone, gathered this great cast of potentially shady characters, but honestly? He doesn’t really *do* much with them. They just kind of wander in and out of the story without making a real impact. And Keira Knightley? She mostly just goes back and forth between looking worried and dramatically wide-eyed, which gets a little old, honestly.

Ruth Vale’s popular 2016 novel has been adapted into a 95-minute movie, but the film loses much of the book’s complexity and detail. The screenplay was written by Stone and two other writers, and it’s based on a previous, ultimately discarded, draft that still receives credit.

As a film lover, I have to say this movie starts with a lot of promise, but it quickly gets bogged down. It feels like the filmmakers started a bunch of interesting storylines and then just…left them hanging. Keira Knightley’s character makes some choices that don’t really make sense, and then there’s this big reveal about halfway through that’s not only unbelievable, but it’s presented in such a clumsy way, you might actually find yourself yelling at the screen!

If executed effectively, that initial twist could have energized the movie and set the stage for a compelling story about how ambition and control breed cruelty. Unfortunately, it mostly lost the audience and unintentionally caused them to laugh at moments that were meant to be serious.

The film creates a small amount of tension through its setting – the yacht’s tight hallways and confusing layout effectively build Knightley’s character’s desperation. However, the story falters when characters speak to each other, weighed down by predictable dialogue and awkward explanations.

It’s disappointing because the film boasts a fantastic cast, but their talent is wasted on a story that never lives up to its potential. A promising idea is ultimately let down by a weak and flawed script.

Welcome to the Aurora Bolearis, but be warned – you might want to get off before it disappears completely.

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2025-10-09 19:36