Movie Review: ‘Wicked Little Letters’

Edith (Olivia Colman) sits at the dining table reading to her parents. Her eyes are nervously darting back and forth and her lips are quivering. In her trembling hand is letter #19 she’s just received from an unknown sender. The previous letters are filled with profanities and lewd sexual innuendos. As she reads, tears fill her gentle mother’s eyes, rage and anger fill her hateful father’s. He storms about the room exclaiming that they live in a good Christian home - no place for such abominable words or thoughts. He decides it’s time to take action and storms out the door heading for the local constabulary. An officer comes to their home to investigate.

The officer feels that the most likely person to have written these letters is Rose (Jessie Buckley), Edith’s foul-mouthed, freewheeling, carefree next-door neighbor. Rose is an Irish immigrant who lives with her boyfriend and young daughter. Edith and Rose were friends at one time, enjoying strolling along the beaches of their small town of Littlehampton. An unfortunate event at a birthday party ended their friendship. This event and Rose’s reckless behavior are enough for the constabulary to arrest her for libel - she’s sentenced to two months imprisonment.

Not everyone at the constabulary is convinced of her guilt, however. The young officer, Gladys (Anjana Vasan), notices the differences in Rose’s handwriting and that on the offending letters. Her observations are dismissed by her boss who considers her to be just another young inexperienced female. He also forbids her to investigate any further. When Rose is released from prison she seeks Gladys’s help in clearing her name of any wrongdoing. Gladys can’t, so Rose turns to her friends who are more than willing to assist in discovering the origins of the letters.

Shortly after Rose’s release other members of the community begin receiving similar hate letters. A particularly hateful one, addressed to Edith, is mistakenly opened by her mother, who, after reading it collapses and dies of heart failure. So many such letters are being delivered they become a national sensation - much favored by the press. After making a new discovery Gladys finally agrees to help Rose. Gladys finds a connection to the handwriting on the hate mail and that of a local resident. She and Rose’s friends plot to reveal the true culprit of this scandal and clear their friend’s reputation.

At her trial, Rose admits to her infamy and her vulgar vocabulary. She adds however: “Why would I write these communications when I’d rather shout them verbally?” Gladys and her “team” have a foolproof strategy for revealing the true culprit. They plan to implement this new idea with help from the local post office. The team huddles in a darkened doorway as they watch Edith timidly approaching the letter drop in front of the post office.

Directed by Thea Sharrock (Credits: The One and Only Ivan, Me Before You), Wicked Little Letters runs 100 minutes and is a “should see” for an outrageous true story set in the United Kingdom, 1920. The performances, directing and art direction are all superior. This film premiered at the TIFF.