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

Welcome aboard the “superyacht” Aurora Borealis, where investigative journalist Keira Knightley is the square peg in a round hole of mega-rich fellow guests; deep-pocketed donors awaiting an important announcement from their similarly philanthropic hosts Guy Pearce and his terminally ill wife.

All’s as it should be for the first few hours of the voyage (although Knightley is slightly irked her ex-boyfriend photographer David Ajala is also a passenger), but when our intrepid reporter hears a scuffle in a neighbouring cabin, followed by the sound what she thinks is a woman being thrown overboard, cats are well and truly among pigeons.

However, after raising the alarm so that the crew can carry out a spotlight search of the waters below, she’s informed a head-count shows that everyone is accounted for, and there’s no signs of anything remotely like foul play in the cabin – which nobody was berthing in anyway.

The suggestion is floated (ha!) that she’s imagined the melee, especially after her erstwhile beau lets slip details of a trauma from an earlier newspaper assignment, but our Keira is determined to get to the bottom of the puzzle and figure out who knows more than they’re letting on.

And who do we have? In addition to smoothie moneybags Pearce and his automaton-like staff, there’s his wife’s hangdog doctor Art Malik, boozy gallery owners David Morrissey and Hannah Waddingham, arrogant alpha male model Daniel Ings, flighty social media starlet Kaya Scodelario, wizened cartoon cut-out rock star Paul Kaye, and taciturn tech genius Christopher Rygh, a big noise in AI and facial-recognition software.

Yet, having assembled his roll call of potential rogues, director Simon Stone does very little with them, each ambling in and out of proceedings while barely leaving a mark, as Knightley alternates between frowns and widening her eyes in melodramatic terror.

Ruth Vale’s 2016 source novel was a best seller, but much of its depth and doings has been sacrificed in a slender 95-minute screenplay, co-written by Stone and two others, and based on an earlier, unused but credited adaptation.

It hints at a tricky, difficult process that ultimately falls foul via plot threads abandoned before they’ve had time to pick up speed, logic-defying actions by Knightley, and a pivotal shock/twist near the halfway point that’s both utterly incredulous and delivered in such a ham-fisted fashion it may have viewers shouting “Do you think we’re stupid?!” at the screen.

That spin, if done well, might have been the perfect kick-start for the remainder of the film, paving the way for a punchier tale of how greed and power midwife ruthlessness; instead, it largely disengages the audience and elicits laughs where no self-respecting writer or director wants them.

A modicum of claustrophobic tension is achieved, thanks to the setting, the yacht’s narrow corridors and labyrinthine upper and lower decks helping to escalate Knightley’s desperation – it’s when the characters have to interact with each other that things go awry, the script struggling to escape the twin anchors of fortune cookie cliches and clunky exposition.

The pity is that one look at the cast list promises riches that never surface; these are hugely talented actors feeding on the scraps of a solid premise made stagnant by the screenplay’s myriad shortcomings.

So, welcome aboard the Aurora Bolearis, but you may find yourself wanting to disembark before it sinks without a trace.

The Woman in Cabin 10 is released on Netflix on Friday 10th October 2025. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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