Comedy

Review of the foul-mouthed British period comedy, based on a true story, about profane poison pen letters sent to a prim and respectable woman.

Synopsis

1920’s: The genteel English coastal town of Littlehampton is scandalised when the devoutly religious community leader Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) receives a series of profane poison pen letters. The finger of suspicion soon falls on Edith’s spirited and foul-mouthed Irish neighbour Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley). The two were formerly fast friends but have stopped speaking following an argument.

With the local police force content for Rose to go to jail, it’s up to plucky female officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) to cobble together the circumstantial evidence that suggests Rose is being framed and find the real culprit.

Review, by @Reelreviewer

“You want fucking in the nose, you old beetle!”

Edward Swan (Timothy Spall) reads out one of a choicely worded correspondence.

Is a film with a big selling point of having some of British cinema’s premier actresses saying rude words enough to sustain that movie? Turns out, it is…just about.

The publicists for Wicked Little Letters must have been tittering with glee when forming their promo plans, all hinged around Olivia Colman saying a word that, despite fairly frequent occurrence in modern cinema, is still taboo in the outside, mainstream world. She was heard, rather exultantly, exclaiming it at a red carpet event as her favourite profanity.

You don’t expect to hear ‘cunt’ proliferating on the Today programme or The One Show so, perhaps with callow cautiousness, and/or the need for a decent dramatic wallop, it’s left unsaid until the last possible moment.

For me, one of the great pleasures with Wicked Little Letters is the leading actors. I love Colman for her performances in the gruelling, worthy Tyrannosaur and tartly funny The Favourite (2018) and I have long-admired Buckley whom I first saw in BBC TV’s impeccable War & Peace (2016).

And Colman says that word so well, with such modulation and expression, as she does just about every word and line – whether rude or regal – in this admittedly light but hugely fun script.

The ‘drama’ isn’t enough to sustain a 1hr and 40mins long feature – a 50 min TV programme would have sufficed – but director Thea Sharrock pads out the action as best she can.

Sharrock is helped out inordinately by a numerous cast that, in the round, aren’t necessary but are still lovely to experience.

Jessie Buckley scores massively, using her native Irish accent, as Colman’s free-spirited and deliciously crude neighbour. They make a great screen pair and raise swearing to an art form.

Cast & credits

Director: Thea Sharrock. Film4/Blueprint Pictures/South of the River Pictures/People Person Pictures. 1hr 40mins/100 mins. (15).

Producers: Graham Broadbent, Olivia Colman, Peter Czernin, Ed Sinclair, Jo Wallett.
Writer: Jonny Sweet.
Camera: Ben Davis.
Music: Isobel Waller-Bridge.
Sets: Cristina Casali.

Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Hugh Skinner, Timothy Spall, Anjana Vasan, Lolly Adefope, Eileen Atkins, Alisha Weir, Joanna Scanlon, Jason Watkins, Gemma Jones, Tim Key, Malachi Kirby.