I’m not a gambler, but if I were, I’d have placed a large bet on “The Woman in Cabin 10” soaring straight to the No. 1 spot in Netflix’s top 10 most-watched movies list.
This new Netflix original sailed onto the streaming service on October 10, and stars Keira Knightley as a journalist onboard a luxury yacht who becomes embroiled in a mystery when she witnesses a passenger being thrown overboard. Based on the best-selling Ruth Ware novel of the same name, “The Woman in Cabin 10” has all the ingredients to hook Netflix subscribers, and so I’m unsurprised to see it rapidly ascend to the top of the streaming charts. I won’t even be shocked if it’s docked in the top spot for days to come.
There’s just one problem: “The Woman in Cabin 10” is another Netflix misfire. It’s a movie that promises plenty of excitement on the surface, but as you dive deeper into its web of intrigue, the cracks start to show, and long before the lackluster ending, it’s sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Frankly, the bottom of the Netflix library is where it deserves to be, in my opinion.
‘The Woman in Cabin 10’ is a rudderless Netflix thriller
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For the record, I really wanted to like “The Woman in Cabin 10.” It’s been on my radar for months, and I thought the pre-release trailers were promising. Plus, Keira Knightley’s previous Netflix project, last year’s “Black Doves,” was a great seasonal watch. Granted, I’d heard not great things about the source material, so there was a shade of doubt in my mind.
Nevertheless, I went in optimstic, but what I got in “The Woman in Cabin 10” is one of the most frustrating thrillers I’ve watched all year because it squanders its potential thanks to bland characters (no more so than Knightley’s Laura), hilariously predictable twists, and a second half that goes completely off the rails in a way that had me laughing at its ridiculousness.
Most criminal of all is that the central mystery is wrapped up alarmingly fast. Typically, in a movie of this ilk, the big reveal is saved for the grand finale. After all, in a classic murder-mystery, the killer is unmasked at the end, yet in “The Woman in Cabin 10,” what’s really going on is spelled out to viewers shortly after the halfway mark. And to be blunt, even an observant viewer will probably have figured out the unsubtle clues long before that fact.
Things aren’t helped by how dull Laura’s investigation into this mysterious passenger being thrown overboard is. Even before the blindly obvious reveal, there’s very little excitement in watching the journalist attempt to piece together clues. In fact, her “investigation” mostly hinges on interviewing passengers (including a completely wasted Hannah Waddingham) and staring out at the ocean, looking glum. It’s not exactly peak Poirot.
After the mystery was wrapped up in a surprisingly quick fashion, I was disappointed, but thought perhaps the rest of the movie would settle into a compelling groove; it’s quite the opposite. I’m being extremely vague to avoid spoilers, just in case you have to see this one for yourself, but the back half is an overwritten mess of silly plot points and ludicrous character decisions. That Guy Pearce looks completely bored is perhaps rather telling.
I can stomach a bad movie, as somebody who covers entertainment for a living, I see a lot of them every year. But what is even worse is when a movie has potential but flubs at almost every turn, and that’s “The Woman in Cabin 10.” There’s really nothing here to shout about; its mystery is unfulfilling, its characters are unmemorable, and even its aesthetics are washed-out in a way that mirrors the lack of excitement you’re going to feel while watching.
Netflix has an original movie problem right now
“The Woman in Cabin 10” compounds a problem I’ve had with Netflix for several months now. The streaming service’s slate of original movies has been particularly poor in 2025. The “Netflix original” brand has never been a seal of quality, but among the cheap rom-coms and brainless action-thrillers, there are typically a few gems that justify my continued subscription.
For example, in 2024, the platform may have served up a lot of slop over the summer months but as we entered the fall, we got genuinely excellent originals like “Rebel Ridge,” “His Three Daughters,” and “Woman of the Hour” (though we did also have to endure “Uglies,” which ranks among the worst sci-fi flicks I’ve seen). Yet as the weather turns cooler and the leaves are browning in 2025, Netflix is still giving subscribers very little to work with.
“Night Always Comes” promised more than it could deliver, “The Thursday Murder Club” was cozy but lacked intrigue, “The Wrong Paris” was glossy but shallow, and while Cillian Murphy was electric in “Steve,” the drama never reached a true boiling point. None of these are Netflix movies that I can recommend without some form of caveat; they’ve all got clear flaws.
Right now, I’m craving a Netflix movie that I can truly shout about to anybody who will listen, and I’d hoped “The Woman in Cabin 10” could be just that, but sadly, it’s very much not. But at least there’s a glut of tentpole potential awards players around the corner, so perhaps “A House of Dynamite” (Oct. 24), “Frankstein” (Nov. 7), or “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” (Dec. 16) will be the high-quality Netflix movie I feel the platform badly needs now.
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