‘Wicked Little Letters’ Review – Buckley and Colman Swear Up a Storm

The big picture

• Evil little letters
  is a witty comic mystery film set in 1920s England.
• A spectacular cast led by Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley make the film a joy to watch.
• The mystery itself seems rushed and predictable.

This review is based on a screening at the Palm Springs Film Festival.

Almost anyone who has had a social media presence has probably received a rude message or two that could be described as “mean”. Hate mail is something that has been around since time immemorial, but in the age of the Internet, rude messages have become par for the course in any online discussion. Of course, things weren't like that, and simply sending an anonymous, hateful letter instead of a YouTube comment was something more intimate, dramatic, and sometimes even serious.

One such setting where this concept was very evident was in England at the beginning of the 20th century, where an outrageous series of obstinate letters began to enter the mailboxes of dozens of modest people. This is the real story me before you i The one and only Ivan director Thea Sharrock explore with Evil little letters. Set in the 1920s, she is said to be a reserved and religious woman Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) begins to receive mysterious letters, all of them feature abusive language that she and her conservative parents find appalling. The Swans immediately accuse their next-door neighbor, a free-spirited Irish immigrant named Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), of being the writer of the letters, given how infamous her carefree and rude disposition is in her quaint town of Littlehampton. However, an often underestimated policewoman, Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan), has doubts and suspects that Rose may be being framed for her involvement in the scandal.

The stories of these three women converge Evil little letters, which ends up being a badly entertaining comic mystery. This is mainly achieved thanks to a spectacular cast led by Colman and Buckley and tremendously witty dialogue from the writer. Jonny Sweet in his debut as a feature screenwriter. While Thea Sharrock's third feature occasionally falls into the tropes of other dramatized biopics, Evil little letters it's a fun mystery to watch unfold.

'Wicked Little Letters' shines brighter thanks to its spectacular cast

In case you didn't know, Olivia Colman is a sensational actor. In other news, the water is wet. Yes, to say that an Academy Award winner like Colman is excellent at anything almost feels redundant at this point. Still, it really can't be understated that she's proven once again that she's one of the best performers working in the industry today with Evil little letters. Even when playing a character that could essentially be summed up as a 20th-century “Karen,” Colman's personality and charisma are practically contagious. Through visual emotions alone, the character of Edith Swan is hysterically funny at times and deeply sympathetic at others.

The same can also be said of Buckley com Evil little letters reunites the two actors after they played the same character in 2021 The lost daughter. Like Colman, Buckley is a delight to watch on screen, injecting so much personality and charm into Rose Gooding's character. She is the source of some of the film's best zingers, such as when she tells her daughter (Alisha Weir) that the rude slang on their front door is just a German expression.

narratively, Edith and Rose serve as wonderful foils to each other. Where Edith is polite and reserved, Rose is bewildered and open. Where Rose believes she should be free to live life on her own terms, Edith believes that social roles dictate that a woman should be adequate and harmless. It's a great dichotomy, though it's a shame we don't get to see more of the early days of their relationship. Their lives and friendship prior to the infamous letters are summed up in a quick montage, and while it gets the job done, I wouldn't have minded seeing another 15-20 minutes of the two interacting with each other.

The rest of Evil little letters'The supporting cast is stellar, especially with Killing Eve star Anjana Vasan gave a stellar performance as Officer Moss. Another highlight is Timothy Spall playing Edith's abusive and controlling father, who ends up being more vile and unsympathetic than his infamous character in the Harry Potter saga Also, a notable cast member is Weir, and while she doesn't get a ton of screen time as Rose's daughter, she makes enough of an impression to show that her stellar performance in Matilda the musical by Roald Dahl it was no accident.

The comedy of “Wicked Little Things” soars, but its mystery is somewhat lacking

For his first script, Sweet knocks things out of the park with dialogue from Wicked little things. Combined with the aforementioned talent of the cast, the deliciously vile and creative wordplay will have the audience laughing a lot. The cast and writing also manage to pull off the moments when Wicked little things it gets a little more serious, mainly with the problems Edith experiences within the confines of her home. Once again, Colman's range as an actor is unmatched as he can go from hilarious to tragic at the drop of a hat.

If you were to plot the total pitch percentage evil little things, it's about 75% comedy and 20% drama. The remaining 5% is the film's sense of mystery, which is where it struggles a bit. To sum up, the mystery of who sends the titular notes is quite obvious, and the movie seems to know it. The real culprit is revealed in a sequence that feels rushed and quickly whips through the theme in an oddly paced moment. All of this also happens in the middle of the movie, so after it happens, the movie starts to move towards a somewhat predictable and clichéd ending.

As stated in the film's obligatory “Where Are They Now” epilogue, the real story of Swan and Gooding is pretty muddled in history, so it's hard to tell how accurate and romanticized it is. . Evil little letters is. Regardless, Sharrock's latest is a deliciously raw moment in cinema. He effectively makes his audience laugh while also having something to say between jokes, offering a meaningful commentary on the societal standards projected onto women by men both in the 1920s and today. In short, Evil little letters is a lovely comedy worth writing about (just be sure to check your language when doing this).

Evil little letters is now available to stream on VOD in the US

WATCH ON VOD