Just because something happened, doesn’t mean it’s worth making a movie about. In the case of Thea Sharrock’s British comedy Wicked Little Letters, it’s up for debate whether this particular true story was entirely deserving of a feature film. This isn’t necessarily because the movie itself is bad—on the contrary, at times it can be quite fun. But it fails to ever really spit out exactly what it’s trying to say.
Wicked Little Letters tells the story of Edith (Olivia Colman), a prim and proper woman who lives at home with her parents and Never Does Anything Wrong. She is kindhearted and good-spirited, which is why it is so disturbing when she begins to receive scandalous letters in the mail. These letters are filled with all manner of filth, reading as if written by someone who has a deep-seated bone to pick with puritanical Edith. Naturally, the letters rock the conservative worlds of Edith and her parents—they can barely read the letters out loud to each other without blushing—and the family is determined to get to the bottom of who is sending them. Enter Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), the less-than-respectable neighbor who has a bad habit of swearing uncontrollably and generally doing all the things a proper woman of society should avoid. Basically, she’s the Lorelai Gilmore of 1920s England.
When Rose is accused of penning the spicy letters, the town is split on who to believe. Rose is adamant that, even though she and Edith don’t always see eye to eye, she is not the foul-mouthed pen pal. The film spends its time trying to convince us of Rose’s innocence all while attempting to uncover the true letter writer’s identity, and it has a good time taking its audience along for the ride. Colman is, as usual, incredible in her role, playing into Edith’s chasteness in a subtle and convincing way, and Buckley is delightful as the unconventional Irish immigrant next door. At times, the movie shares a lot of similarities with 2018’s Oscar-nominated Can You Ever Forgive Me starring Melissa McCarthy, but whereas this film has a lot to say about finding one’s true purpose, Wicked Little Letters lacks by way of a strong message.
Without giving away the film’s major twist (though savvy movie goers will be able to guess it from the very start), Sharrock’s film wants to say a lot about the importance of a woman’s right to voice her own opinions. However, the movie ultimately ends up getting caught up in its own bag of tricks so that the female empowerment ends up falling flat. If this is supposed to be the point, it doesn’t really land well enough to make a strong impression. Instead, viewers are left wondering why this supposedly true story was worth telling at all. The film is based on an actual event that took place in Littlehampton, Sussex back in the 1920s, and though it does make for an entertaining anecdote, it’s going to need a lot more postage to actually deliver.
Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
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