Wicked Little Letters Review – Entertaining, Strong Story Driven Performances

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Category: Film

Published on Friday, 22 March 2024 14:23

Written by Janet Walker

Wicked Little Letters, from Sony Pictures Classics, brings to the screen a sordid tale of good verses evil and the power of the pen, as a small English town confronts a scandal of epic and reverberating proportion.

The film begins with the arrival of a letter, apparently a vile, wicked letter laced with profanities, and sexual perversion, addressed to the town "saint," Edith Swan, played by Olivia Colman. She lives with her parents, mom, Victoria, played by Gemma Jones, and dad, Edward, played by Timothy Spall, a very devout and strict Christian home, filled with demeaning rules and regulations.

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Of course, the world quickly assumes, the wild free-spirited neighbor, Rose Gooding, played by Jessie Buckley, is the guilty party. The letters continue to arrive, each more intently defaming Edith with vile innuendo.

We also understand with paper thin walls in a housing tenement, the Christians were subject to the laughter of the house next door. We meet the Gooding family, a loved daughter, Nancy, played by Alicia Weir, a lover, Bill, played by Malachi Kirby, who also shocks the enclave as he is black. A bi-racial couple, of course, adds to the assumption of guilt. A barbaric animal she is, for sure.

As the film progresses, we are also treated to the back story. We understand Rose Gooding's need to leave home, after suffering great loss, and trying to begin again, hoping for friendships, especially from those who profess Christian beliefs. And we also understand when modern meets archaic and the impossibility of staying silent.

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Once Rose is taken into custody, the possibility of her guilt becomes less sure, and the town sleuths, both amateur, Ann, played by Joanna Scanlan, Mabel, played by Eileen Atkins, and Kate, played by Lolly Adefope, from the local women's club, and the now ex-Police Officer Gladys Moss, played by Anjana Vasan, take over and decides if anyone can catch the real writer of these poisoned penned letters, they could do it.

Wicked Little Letters, which is based on a stranger than fiction true story that garnered the attention of the UK government, is entertaining and surprisingly funny.

I felt confident early into the film that it was the lonely Christian neighbor that put on false pretense of brotherly love, concern, care, and with the letters she suddenly became "famous," no longer fading into the woodwork, she was known, finally a somebody.

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The director's use of light, from the brightness of one home to the darkness of the other, is another clue into the identity of the offender. Throughout the film it became apparent, at least to me, of the choice, the light-filled home of the loud and boisterous, free-spirited, fun-loving single mother living in "sin" and the darkness of the next-door Christian neighbor, never getting out of the house, controlled in behavior by her abusive father, unable to live, breath, make mistakes, love.

It was easy to see behind the profession of faith lie a spirit of destruction. The courtroom scene, personify the mean-spirited hateful Christians, at least those that I have known, who scorch the earth of lives, and then sit back watching with an intoxicated euphoria over the damage they have caused which is captured with authenticity by Olivia Colman.

Both hilarious and tragic, Wicked Little Letters opens March 29, 2024. See it.

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Country: UK.

Runtime: 100minutes.

Release Date: March 29, 2024.

Director: Thea Sharrock.

Producer: Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Ed Sinclair, Olivia Colman, Jo Wallett.

Screenplay: Jonny Sweet.

Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Timothy Spall, Anjana Vasan, Gemma Jones, Malachi Kirby, Hugh Skinner, Paul Chahidi, Lolly Adefope, Joanna Scanlan, Eileen Atkins, Alisha Weir.