Review: 'Wicked Little Letters' is a foul-mouthed comedy with engaging performances by Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley
As a lover of the old Ealing Studios comedies, those dry-humored English comedies of the ‘50s and ‘60s, I never thought to imagine what one would be like with long streams of curse words — but that’s what director Thea Sharrock’s subversively amusing “Wicked Little Letters” provides.
Based on a true story, Sharrock and screenwriter Jonny Sweet start with the feud — in 1920, in a Sussex town called Littlehampton — between two neighbors, the pious spinster Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) and a rambunctious Irish single mom, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley). Edith, a Bible-toting woman concerned with propriety, can barely tolerate all she hears through the thin walls of their adjoining houses, including the guitar music and occasional sex sounds.
The movie starts with the arrival of what is labeled “the 19th letter” — a perfectly inked piece of mail with foul-mouthed phrases about the recipient’s most private parts. This time, Edith’s overbearing father (Timothy Spall), tells her, they can have Rose locked up — since Dad is sure that Rose is the source of these obscenity-filled letters. A dimwitted constable, Papperwick (Hugh Skinner), agrees, and soon Rose is locked up, accused of disturbing the peace.
Rose proclaims her innocence, making the valid point that she would never be shy about swearing to Edith’s face, so why would she write such things in a letter? The town’s lone female constable, Gladys Ross (Anjana Vasan), tends to believe Rose, and takes it upon herself to investigate the case, dealing with the sexism and stupidity of her chief (Paul Chahidi) and the patriarchy within the police force. (One example of the sexism at play: Ross is required to identify herself as “Woman Police Officer Ross,” no matter how obvious both parts of that title may be.)
Sharrock and Sweet don’t draw out the mystery — the reveal is about midway through the movie — and are more interested in the circumstances of Edith’s and Rose’s lives that led to this confrontation. For Rose, there are hints of abuse back in Ireland that prompted her to emigrate to England. For Edith, it’s the constant belittling and dehumanizing behavior of her father, and the meek acceptance that she and her mother (Gemma Jones) have demonstrated in the face of his wrath.
Mostly, “Wicked Little Letters” is a good reason to watch and appreciate the lead performers, Colman and Buckley, who bring different types of intensity to the disparate roles — Colman’s Edith as the repressed do-gooder, and Buckley as the unfiltered survivor. (Fun fact: Colman and Buckley played the same character at different ages in 2021’s “The Lost Daughter” and each got Oscar nominations for it.) Together and separately, Colman and Buckley add some space to this whimsical story.
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‘Wicked Little Letters’
★★★
Opens Friday, April 5, in theaters. Rated R for language and a flash of nudity. Running time: 100 minutes.