The Dig, director Simon Stone’s last film for Netflix, starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, was a surprising change of pace, and a great rare addition to any streaming giant’s catalogue: a soft, low-energy, really good film that is not necessarily designed to blow people’s minds. It is little wonder, then, that Stone returns to Netflix with another film, albeit this time with some predictability to it.

In The Woman in Cabin 10 — an adaptation of the 2016 novel by Ruth Ware, adapted by Stone, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse — a curious, somewhat self-conscious Keira Knightly plays Laura Blacklock, a journalist for The Guardian, who is asked to accompany billionaires on a yacht, but takes it upon herself to find the identity of the passenger in Cabin 10 — a room where no one has ever stayed according to the ship’s records.

As with any thriller, there is a murder — but is there really one, or is Laura hallucinating that part because of a recent trauma? Stone doesn’t let that thought linger longer than necessary, and the film is better off that way.

The pace and the pay-off is slick, with the runtime clocking in at 95 minutes, and most of the film set on the luxury yacht. Irrespective of the one-big-location setting, the film never becomes claustrophobic, despite the predictable reveal and turns of the villain or the climax, which feels a few notches on the dumber side.

Netflix’s The Woman in Cabin 10 starring Keira Knightly is a highly recommended dark thriller

Knightly, as the cliched term goes, is first-rate as a slightly unsettled journo who is there to observe and write a report of the goodness of the assembled billionaires’ hearts (they’re gathered aboard for a charity). One can see the postures of discomfort Knightly employs in her character play, with the way she sits, walks, or stands in the company of strangers. It is a good, thoughtful performance.

David Ajala, okay for the most part, plays Morgan, her ex, who is there to photograph the gathering. Guy Pierce, often one of the best actors cast in any film, brings about as much authenticity as he can to a role that has room for little authenticity. He plays the billionaire host of the trip.

However, the two main performers are Lisa Loven Kongsli and Gitte Witt — one of them playing Pierce’s character’s wife, and the other the alleged figment of Laura’s imagination: the woman in Cabin 10.

Saying anything else will be giving it all away, so I’ll say this instead: Stone is a serious filmmaker who is painfully aware of the path most thrillers walk. Instead of making a run-of-the-mill murder mystery, which this film may very well have turned into at any given moment (or in anyone else’s hands), Stone gives the film a thick, believable, beautifully cinematic atmosphere that is cold, uncaring and, yet, just right given the genre.

The film comes highly recommended, but is relegated to the second spot of Netflix’s top 10, because people just cannot stop putting Bollywood movies in the number one position.

Streaming on Netflix, The Woman in Cabin 10 is rated suitable for ages 16 and older, given its theme, though its target audience is definitely older

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 19th, 2025