Poland’s Cultural Institute, an organization backed by the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, publicly criticized Netflix on Saturday for altering the ending of the film adaptation of Richard Osman’s bestselling novel The Thursday Murder Club, calling the change "deeply unfortunate" and accusing the streaming service of "stereotyping."
The complaint follows a wave of fan anger after the movie, based on Osman's 2020 novel that has sold about 10 million copies worldwide, diverged significantly from the book after the identity of the killer is revealed. The novel follows four pensioners — Elizabeth (Dame Helen Mirren), Ron (Pierce Brosnan), Joyce (Celia Imrie) and Ibrahim (Sir Ben Kingsley) — who investigate cold cases while living at the retirement community Coopers Chase. In the book, the culprit is identified as Bogdan, a Polish employee of the home; the institute said the film’s subsequent changes leaned on negative national stereotyping.
The dispute centers on narrative choices made after the discovery of the body of Tony Curran, played in the film by Geoff Bell. While the book resolves the case with Bogdan as the culprit and follows a particular course of events, the institute said Netflix’s filmmakers took a "drastic departure" from that resolution in ways that portray a Polish character and, it asserted, Poles generally in an unfavorable light.
Fans and some commentators also expressed outrage on social media after the film’s release, criticizing the adaptation for its handling of the plot twist. The Polish Cultural Institute’s statement marked an unusually direct intervention by a government-backed cultural body into a dispute over a commercial streaming release.
The Thursday Murder Club has been one of the more visible recent examples of a bestselling novel adapted for the screen, with star casting widely publicized during production. The involvement of high-profile actors and a major streaming platform has amplified scrutiny of creative decisions. The institute’s statement did not call for legal action but framed its remarks as part of broader concerns over cultural representation and how national identities are depicted in international entertainment.
Netflix has not issued a public response to the institute’s remarks. Representatives for the film’s producers and screenwriters did not immediately comment.
Adaptations of popular novels often draw scrutiny when changes are made to plot or character, and the dispute over The Thursday Murder Club highlights the tensions that can arise when a story with a wide readership is reshaped for a new medium and global audience. Critics of the film’s ending say the change undermines the book’s resolution and risks reinforcing stereotypes; defenders of adaptation note that screen versions frequently alter source material for pacing, tone or medium-specific storytelling. The public rebuke from a government-backed cultural institute, however, underscores how alterations to cultural products can carry diplomatic as well as artistic implications.