Directed By Thea Sharrock

Starring – Olivia Colman, Jesse Buckley, Timothy Spall

The Plot – A 1920s English seaside town bears witness to a dark, absurd scandal in this riotous mystery comedy. Based on a stranger-than-fiction true story, the film follows two neighbours: deeply-conservative local Edith Swan (Colman) and rowdy Irish migrant Rose Gooding (Buckley). When Edith and fellow residents start to receive wicked letters full of unintentionally hilarious profanities, foul-mouthed Rose is charged with the crime. The anonymous letters prompt a national uproar, and a trial ensues. However, as the town’s women, led by Police Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan), begin to investigate the crime themselves, they suspect that something is amiss and Rose might not be the culprit after all.

Rated R for adult language and nudity

WICKED LITTLE LETTERS | Official Trailer (2024) (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

History hasn’t been very kind to wild stories that beg the big screen treatment, but Sharrock and the next generation of ambitious filmmakers are righting the wrongs of previous ignorance, all with a rauciously uproarious consistency in comedic material that supplants it as the film to beat for that genre moving forward. As previously alluded to in my ratings, roughly 98% of the reason for its coveted R-rating is the language, which the script not only unloads viciously and viscerally with unapologetic glee, but also meaningfully in the ways it colorfully illustrates the varying degrees of diversity between its two leading ladies. As a result, the laughs are aplenty, especially if you dig the abrasive awkwardness of English humor, like I do, with dry deliveries to such devilishly distasteful vocabulary lingering with such confidence, but also constantly endearing without ever oversaturating the flavor of their appeal, especially in the way they shape-shift with each passing sent letter. Aside from the comedy, the script from Jonny Sweet also isn’t afraid of getting its hands dirty with the single biggest tragedy of this story falling in the devastating clutches of gender roles among law enforcement and familial households. This gives the material an edginess of sorts that prove it has so much more to say about the period piece than just the limitations of investigative tools to unearth the mystery’s culprit, but rather the ignorance of those leading the investigation, for discrediting the passionate emphasis of an up-and-coming detective, for gender and inexperience, which are both out of her unfortunate control. Sharrock has evolved incredibly since the shallow and manipulative, “Me Before You”, imbedding endearingly to the quirky atmospheric range of its boldly charismatic characters, with quick edits and claustrophobic framing, that Wes Anderson would smile and nod indebtedly towards, as well as a commitment to character that serves as the single most defining ingredient to attain audience interests, especially in the depths of fascinating, low-stakes mystery that she makes feel catastrophic among the small and stuffy community. As expected, Colman and Buckley are downright delightful, especially in their waging of a neighborly war that grows all the more intense and unresolving with their combustible ingredients to character simmering the water that eventually blows the proverbial pot. For Buckley, this couldn’t be felt louder than with the vitriolically vulgar diatribes that she unloads like a magazine through a machine-gun, all with Jesse’s unbridled rage effortlessly conveying the anger and frustrations of a system that constantly fails her, but for Colman it pertains to a carefully placed meticulous prudence that sells the magnitude of impact towards the letters’ very cruel and cantankerous assesments, but with an air of shock that sells their impacts wonderfully. The film is obviously at its best when these two share screen time with one another, but even in their isolation, the two psychologically gifted actresses do a tremendous job of maintaining the movie’s momentum throughout a breezy 95 minute run time, all the while earning credibility to the movie’s marketing, which they dominated as a result of their on-going rivalry. Colman and Buckley aren’t alone, however, as Spall and Vasan are equally integral to the value of the material’s eclectic depth, with the former feeling lifted from an Agatha Christie novel, for his exaggerated deliveries and lack of environmental awareness that afforded him the freedom to casually chew at the movie’s scenery, while the latter stoically enriched a character constantly riddled by beaureacratic disrespect, endearing with expressive facial registries that conveyed the magnitude of her interior disappointment, but also such dry deliveries in caustic clarity that enveloped her frustrations with being the single most intelligent person working the investigation. As for the mystery itself, it does have its hits and misses with the way it unraveled throughout the engagement, but where it worked was with building suspense and expansion of the various motives that proved it to be so much more than just one big reveal. In knowing absolutely nothing about this case, I attained the freedom to explore many unique and equally fitting avenues of possibilities, but even in those who knowledgable about the case, the many aforementioned layers in thematic exploration supplant an overarching accessibility to these characters in ways we couldn’t possibly expect, at least initially, and while the execution isn’t free from errors, especially in the moments it chooses to unload the truth bomb of reality, I can safely assess that I didn’t see it coming, and that already leaves it better than most contemporary mystery movies, where obviousness starts to set in with characters who aren’t drawn with even half of the amount of depth to these ladies.

NEGATIVES

As for disappointments, the aforementioned inferior element to the mystery left slightly more to be desired, especially in unveiling its culprit with around 45 minutes left in the run time. This wouldn’t be such a big deal if the time following it conjured something equally as endearing, but it leaves the court case itself falling a bit flat dramatically, in that we the audience are constantly one step ahead of the movie’s characters, and the guilty party in question begins acting completely different once they’re revealed to the audience to be capable of such devious intentions, leaving it a bit difficult to think they could’ve ever strung law enforcement and townsfolk along, through months of intense questioning that surely would’ve broken the suspect in question. Finally, as previously conveyed, the script does attack some pretty hard-hitting sociological commentary with its exploration of so many character dynamics, and while a fascinating delve into many frustrating realities within this period piece, did result in quite a few abrupt tonal shifts that didn’t feel earned in the depths of the story’s consistencies. As to where the third act climax does involve a fully formed and mature tonal evolution that serves as a result of Edith and Rose’s devastating backstories with their respective cultures, the second act is riddled by jumpy sequencing between scenes of two entirely different emotional ranges, especially too often, leaving it feeling like two differing films fighting for the focus of one cohesive direction. Since I previously brought up Wes Anderson, consider it like watching “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, with moments of Sarah Gavron’s “Suffragette” thrown in for good measure. Two great films in their own right, but tonally improper in deviating from one to the other, especially with the overwhelming emphasis in quirky humor during “Wicked Little Letters” leaving so little room for sporadically dramatic shifts that aren’t even half as compelling or earned as the uniqueness to personality that it conjures during comedic plunges.

OVERALL
“Wicked Little Letters” is a spicy and scintillating affair, made irresistible by the spellbinding showcase of Colman and Buckley each making their case as two of the best actresses of their time. Though the film occasionally loses its luster with abrupt tonal shifts or a far-too-early reveal of its devious culprit, the fiery frenzy of its anything-goes dialogue and sociological layers imbedded to the characters and story elicits an uproariously raucous good time to the strange-but-true realities of the rivalry that truly have to be seen to be believed.

My Grade: 8/10 or B+