Amidst this fairly average mystery about a reporter on a luxury yacht who is sure she saw someone go overboard—only to find out that no one on board is missing—there seems to be a vague attempt at saying something about the current state of journalism. But like most of The Woman in Cabin 10, that theme doesn’t seem capable of fully committing to the premise and ends up flopping around on the screen like a fish on land, gasping for its last breath. Based on the bestselling novel of the same name by Ruth Ware and directed by actor-turned-director Simon Stone (The Dig), the movie centers on Laura Blacklock (Keira Knightley). She's recently returned to work after a traumatic, work-related event in which a woman she was about to interview, who was about to blow the lid off a major story, died suspiciously.
Laura can’t help but feel responsible, so her editor (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) gives her what she thinks will be an easy assignment that might also double as a vacation: a long weekend on board the aforementioned yacht on its maiden voyage. During the journey, the owners, Richard and Anne Bullmer (Guy Pearce and Lisa Loven Kongsli), will make a big announcement regarding a charitable donation to be given after Anne’s imminent death (she’s dying a some unnamed disease). The vessel is filled with the Bullmer’s friends, who also happen to be some of the richest and most influential Brits alive, including rock stars, influencers, and other elite d-bags for Laura to interview and write about. It also turns out an ex-boyfriend of hers, Ben (David Ajala) is on board as the event’s official photographer, so Laura has that bit of awkwardness to contend with as well.
But in an attempt to avoid Ben at one point on the first day, she ducks into the cabin next door to hers and finds a young woman (Gitte Witt) having just stepped out of the shower. Embarrassed, Laura slips back out of the room; but later that night, she’s awoken by noises from that cabin and when she rushes to her balcony, she sees a body having just splashed into the water. She reports the incident to the crew, and after a thorough search and a quick passenger check, it turns out everyone is accounted for, and everyone begins to think that Laura’s trauma about her previous job is impacting her ability to tell reality from whatever she’s experiencing now. The Woman in Cabin 10 becomes something of a reverse whodunit—there’s no body, no proof the woman even existed or was on board, and so Laura sets out to figure out what she saw and who might be responsible for covering it up.
Other intolerable passengers on the journey are played by the likes of Hannah Waddingham, Kaya Scodelario, Paul Kaye, and David Morrissey, and everybody is doing their best to be both snooty toward Laura yet also appear innocent of any shady behavior. There’s evidence that someone had gotten into Laura’s cabin at some point and carefully searched her things. Meanwhile, she does make some progress when she discovers that Anne’s new will completely cuts out her husband, which he claims not to care about—but it’s Guy Pearce, and we know he can’t be trusted.
The biggest issue with the film is that almost none of what Laura does in terms of investigation feels real. If someone on board was trying to silence or even kill her, wouldn’t sneaking around and making trouble make her an even bigger target? (Spoiler alert: It does.) But I also couldn’t stand the way Laura is portrayed as a frazzled, on-the-edge woman who can’t keep her shit together long enough to convince people she isn’t crazy. It’s demeaning, and Knightley is capable of doing so much more with a better-written character. Also, as the truth begins to get pieced together, the end of the film is ridiculous as things turn into a clunky chase movie and bodies start piling up, all in the name of keeping secrets. I’m not even sure everything that happens in this movie makes a lick of sense, and admittedly, sometimes that can be fun. But in the case of that poor lady in Cabin 10, it’s mostly just dull.
The film is now streaming on Netflix.
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