Wicked Little Letters – Movie Review
Director: Thea Sharrock (Me Before You)
Writer: Jonny Sweet (Screenplay)
Cast
- Olivia Colman (The Favourite)
- Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose)
- Timothy Spall (The Last Bus)
- Hugh Skinner (The Invitation)
- Alisha Weir (Abigail)
- Anjana Vasan (Cyrano)
Plot: When people in Littlehampton–including conservative local Edith–begin to receive letters full of hilarious profanities, rowdy Irish migrant Rose is charged with the crime. Suspecting that something is amiss, the town’s women investigate.
Runtime: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Wicked Little Letters starts when Edith Swan (Colman) gets the latest letter with profanities. Her father Edward (Spall) believes it is their loud mouth rowdy Irish migrant Rose (Buckley). She has a reputation for causing trouble, but nothing violent.
When the police get involved, they charge Rose who faces prison. However, plucky police officer Gladys Moss (Vasan) must challenge the male dominated world to uncover the truth.
Verdict on Wicked Little Letters
Wicked Little Letters is a crime comedy following a small town rocked by a scandal of profanity-written letters. The prime suspect is a rowdy Irish woman who fell out with the victim. However, not everything is what it seems and an unlikely team must investigate.
This comedy takes us to a different world of the 1920s, where equality wasn’t fairly established. It shows with how easily they decide Rose is guilty without any proof and how easily Gladys is dismissed from investigating. There is a huge message about how badly women were treated in that era and how harshly they could be judged for not following everyone else. We also deal with controlling behavior and racist behavior toward Gladys. The subjects are touched on and dealt with in an era-specific way.
We get wonderful performances from Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley. Elsewhere, Timothy Spall gives a disturbing performance. Anjana Vasan steals the show with her police officer performance, as her character must overcome most taboos for a woman in the force and a race others look down on.
Final Thoughts – Wicked Little Letters is a delightful movie filled with plenty of laughs.
