3 ½ Stars (out of 4)
What are we to make of this quirky black comedy/mystery which uses such a super abundance of creative profanity that we are gob smacked just about the same time we fall laughing into the aisles? Based on a true event, the film is set in a down-at-the-heels British seaside town, Littlehampton, in 1920.
Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) is a spinster church-lady who still lives with her parents – her abusive and dominating father, Edward (Timothy Spall), and her submissive mother, Victoria (Gemma Jones). However Edith may justify her existence, she is the archetypal sibling left behind to tend the fires and see mom and dad into their dotage. Her outward demeanor is prudish and reeks of a holier-than-thou attitude. Always wearing an angelically smug smile, profanity would never pass her lips. Ah, but her pen is another matter entirely.
Someone has been sending Edith the most outrageous letters, dripping with such profanity they would make a lumberjack blush. The police (think, keystone cops) have yet to solve the mystery. Virtually everyone in the town thinks the culprit is the Irish immigrant: foul-mouthed, pub-crawling Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), Edith’s former friend and next door neighbor and single mother to little Nancy. It isn’t long before Rose is arrested and Edith is on the road to nomination for sainthood. Poor Rose cannot even afford the three pounds to make bail.
In the meantime, policewoman officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) and members of the local ladies whist players (think: Bridge) conduct their own hilarious investigation. PC Moss has already been suspended from the police department for exploring the obvious: whose handwriting matches that in the letters? Rose, who can barely read and write, or someone with an education?
We soon discover Edith is the author of the scornful and crude letters whose expanse now reaches well beyond the confines of Littlehampton. We recognize her letter writing as a suppressed rebellion against her repressive father and passive mother and her uniquely miserable existence. Soon, all ends, more or less, well.
But there are obvious levels of sensitive subjects which are casually glossed over, since this is an English comedy at its core. The sexism, chauvinism, Christian piety, poverty, domestic abuse and cruelty are boldly witnessed but never addressed. Those are issues for some other offering. We need only take “Wicked Little Letters” as the farce that it is and tut-tut as those more serious issues present themselves. I wouldn’t have minded a few captions – especially when Edward Swan was speaking in a rasping bogue only a native Brit might understand. But there was no mistaken the hilarious and imaginative profanity which scrawled across the screen as the credits were rolling.
The wonderful character actors give this film a rich texture. Both Colman and Buckley were magnificent. I would see this movie again – if only to examine the creativity of such a plethora of profanity.
I saw this film in the front row of my favorite theater, Park Plaza Cinema, with my movie buddy, Tracey.
McVitty Movie Reviews 