Scott Harrington reviews Wicked Little Letters at Borderlines Film Festival

It’s interesting to think that sometimes real life events are harder to believe than fiction, and Wicked Little Letters really brings that home. 

Something that must be mentioned upfront is that while I did enjoy the film immensely, I would not recommend it to anyone likely to be offended by its excessive use of strong language. 

Wicked Little Letters is a comedy drama based on a real life scandal in 1920’s Littlehampton. Olivia Colman (who also produced the film) stars as Edith Swan, a very well mannered woman from a deeply religious family, living next door to Rose Gooding, an angry, crude,  straight-talking woman who has had her fair share of setbacks. 

After a fall out between the polar opposite neighbours, Edith along with other residents of the town receives umpteen vulgar letters in the post containing very strong, harassing language. Everybody believes Rose is responsible for sending the letters and this results in an arrest, as well as potentially losing custody to her young daughter Nancy. The rest of the film involves Gladys played by Anjana Vasan, an exceptional but under appreciated police officer taking matters into her own hands and solving the mystery as to who is sending the letters.

Wicked Little Letters is directed by Thea Sharrock, known for directing Call The Midwife and Before You, and you can see very clearly by the tone and style with elements of familiarity, which can make the viewers feel in safe hands. Sharrock also gets the balance of drama and comedy perfectly top notch. I found the narrative and humour fast-paced, keeping me very engaged particularly as the mystery begins to unravel. I found it very thrilling. 

The comedy in Wicked Little Letters is portrayed by such a terrific cast to support Colman and Buckley, including acting royalty Timothy Spall as Edith’s strict and sometimes overbearing father, along with Dame Eileen Atkins, comedian Lolly Adefope and Joanna Scanlan from the Sky sitcom “Stella”, who are all showcased in their performances throughout the film. Each one of them got laughs out of me. 

Having recently enjoyed the ITV scandal series “Mr Bates vs The Post Office”, I have been eager to catch another true yet untold scandal story now gaining attention in the media, and Wicked Little Letters certainly didn’t disappoint me. I feel even if some viewers are not captivated by the mystery solving, the film is still full of hilarity and surprises that definitely kept me amused and entertained.