In one sentence: The Woman in Cabin 10 follows journalist, Lo, on a luxury cruise who believes she has witnessed a woman’s disappearance, only to be told that no such passenger ever existed.

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I will admit that whodunnits are not usually my genre of choice, but I am always open to being surprised. When Friday evening rolled around, I decided to give Netflix’s The Woman in Cabin 10 a try; a murder mystery set aboard a super yacht. With a cast like this, it is easy to be intrigued. Keira Knightley leads, joined by Guy Pearce, Art Malik, and surprising appearances from Paul Kaye and Daniel Ings. Despite the promising line-up and its bestselling source material from Ruth Ware, the film ultimately misses the mark.

Knightley plays Laura ‘Lo’ Blacklock, an investigative journalist coming off both a career breakthrough and a painful breakup. When she is invited to cover a luxury voyage en route to Norway to launch the cancer charity of shipping heiress and billionaire Anne Bullmer (Lisa Loven Kongsli) and her husband Richard (Guy Pearce), Lo finds herself surrounded by the ultra-rich and feels very out of place. To make matters worse, her ex-boyfriend, Ben (David Ajala), is on board as the event’s photographer.

When heading to the first dinner, wearing a beautiful sparkly gown reminiscent of Knightley’s Coco Mademoiselle adverts, Lo catches sight of Ben showing photos to another guest and retreats into the neighbouring cabin, Cabin 10, where she encounters a blonde woman in a hoodie. She apologises and leaves, thinking little of it. Later that night, she wakes to the sound of shouting. From her balcony, she glimpses what she believes to be the woman from Cabin 10 falling into the water, and a bloody handprint smeared on the wall. When she raises the alarm and a mayday call is made, the crew insists there is no guest staying in Cabin 10 and that everyone on board is accounted for. The distress call is cancelled, and the film shifts into full gaslighting mode. Everyone thinks Lo has imagined the event, but has she?

At just over 90 minutes, the film moves quickly, almost too quickly. The pacing does not leave much room to develop the colourful mix of guests and staff who could have added depth or intrigue. Instead, most are left as background figures to Lo’s increasingly frantic search for answers.

Knightley brings intensity and commitment to the role, and her more serious moments are convincing. However, the supporting performances vary in tone. Hannah Waddingham, David Morrissey and Paul Kaye feel somewhat at odds with the film’s otherwise restrained atmosphere.

The plot itself feels both implausible and predictable. It is a shame, given the calibre of the cast and the atmospheric setting. On a more positive note, the score is suitably tense and the cinematography captures the uneasy contrast of luxury and claustrophobia, how a murder at sea should feel.

For die-hard mystery fans, The Woman in Cabin 10 might still offer enough intrigue to try given its short runtime. However, it did not quite convert me to the genre. It is not without style, but it lacks the depth, detail and pacing that make a modern classic. Perhaps there is a reason so many films nowadays run longer, sometimes, the devil really is in the details.

★★½ (2.5/5)