Clubland (2007)

When journalist Lo gets an invite to a luxury yacht vacation, it seems like the perfect way to escape the trauma of her real life and write a puff piece article about rich people having fun in international waters. While she typically reports on more hard-hitting stories, she’s in desperate need of a break. Unfortunately for Lo, she witnesses a woman get thrown overboard on her first day at sea. From there, she is forced to investigate alone while rebuffing the wealthy passengers’ anger and desire for privacy.

The Woman in Cabin 10 is a Netflix movie based on Ruth Ware’s 2016 novel of the same name. Unfortunately for the success of the movie, the title and high-level synopsis are where the similarities between the two pieces end, and this did not serve the movie well.

In the novel, Lo is a travel writer at a dead-end job who gets to go on the cruise only when her boss can no longer make it. She’s insecure and riddled with anxiety, facts that are leveraged against her when she makes her murder accusations. The show, on the other hand, makes Lo an investigative journalist who needs a break after her last source was murdered in front of her. This makes her eventual successes more plausible, but her bumbling nature far less so. I want to root for the struggling writer! I don’t feel as much of a connection to Investigator Lo, especially given the lack of time spent to flesh out her backstory.

Perhaps that last point is the largest problem with the movie as a whole. Despite the work that Kiera Knightley does playing Lo, I never felt much of a connection to the character or her emotional needs. While Netflix and Knightley managed an effective collaboration in the Black Doves limited series, there isn’t enough time to make her feel like a real person in the film. The only character that felt real was Ben, Lo’s ex and a photographer played by David Ajala. Ajala did a fantastic job of showing his concern for Lo while simultaneously making her life more difficult by telling others about her plans and schemes. I liked the two of them together and was most compelled anytime they were in a scene.