In the quaint town of Littlehampton, residents are thrown into a tizzy when a string of foul-mouthed letters keep arriving for Edith Swan (Olivia Colman), a devout, unmarried woman who resides with her elderly parents, Edward (Timothy Spall) and Victoria (Gemma Jones).  Reporting the issue to the police, they find only one person capable of such a disturbance of the peace.  Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), an Irish immigrant and next-door neighbor of the Swan’s, is quickly arrested following Edith’s testimony about her lewd behavior, drunkenness, loudmouth, and questionable skills as a mother.  Rose insists on her innocence, but the only one who will listen to her is Woman Police Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) and she is not taken seriously by superiors so she must investigate the case on her own. 

Thea Sharrock works from a Jonny Sweet penned script to bring about Wicked Little Letters, a riotous true story and quirky bit of fun history.  The 100-minute long crowd pleaser debuted at Toronto before embarking on its theatrical run from Sony Pictures Classics.  With Melanie Oliver in the editing suite, the film bubbles away until it finally boils over in great comic fashion, but Sweet injects a good bit of heart into this farce so these characters all grow across the runtime of the film instead of just occupying the standard comedic archetypes.  

Right off the bat, when you have Colman and Buckley facing off in a battle of wits, it is a practical guarantee of a fun and wild time and Wicked Little Letters is not out to disprove that theory.  Jina Jay cast the film giving Sharrock a great array of talent and personality to bustle, bump, and irritate each other for audiences’ delight.  Buckley revels in the foul-mouthed no-nonsense neighbor who is out to have a good time but is still a ferocious mother who wants to ensure her daughter, Nancy (Alisha Weir), whom she is determined to have grow up to be a good and respectable citizen, which means – much to the girl’s lament – no playing guitar.  There is a great moment when Rose returns home to find Alice on the porch, strumming away at the guitar with a cigarette, and while she is mad about both, the brunt of her ire is levied at her daughter playing the guitar. She adds a stubbornness to this comedy of manners so that we are never quite sure just what will happen next as she throws the template to the ground and curses at the mess it will be to put it all back together again. 

Opposite her is the more mild-mannered Edith, a role which Colman is able to play with devilish charm as the victim of these poison pen letters.  Her performance is absolutely littered with the best shocked and appalled facial expressions, and when Ben Davis’ camera is not locked in on her, she is stewing away in the background but careful not to steal the limelight from her ensemble cast members.  Edith is the character that has the most growth across the film through the strange turn of events that transpire given her intimate connection to the author of the letters and the back half of the film becomes a strange caper as we are getting information from both sides of the story and have a more complete picture of what is going on at any given moment more than either of these women or the police. 

As the events unfold, Wicked Little Letters sidelines its two warring parties allowing Woman Police Officer Moss – later, simply, Officer Moss – to guide the narrative to a close and incorporate the wild bunch of towns folk, specifically Kate (Lolly Adefope), Mabel (Eileen Atkins), and Ann (Joanna Scanlan); each eccentric in their own unique way. This secondary plot line ends up taking over the back half of the film which is good as the simple concept of rude letters being sent to a prudish neighbor, while initially funny, does run its course quite quickly. Moss’ involvement allows the film to open up the world of the film and helps to give it some shape in the second half, even if most of her investigation starts as suspicion of Rose’s innocence more than traditional gumshoeing. It all devolves into a simple, but crowd-pleasing cat-and-mouse game as they hatch a trap to catch their number one suspect red-handed. It is fun, it goes down easy, and it does not require strict attention to every single background detail from 30 minutes prior so that audiences can always stay in on the joke along with the characters. 

Wicked Little Letters is a charming film that bolsters a stellar cast who manage to make British humor actually funny, even to a transatlantic audience. It plays out like a soft punching farce, but the cast are all leaning into the silly absurdity of it all and treating the material with enough gravity that we feel the drama in the situation which in turn becomes part of the comedy with how grave these letters are being treated. To be clear, they would certainly be unpleasant to open day after day, and the film does not shy away from their creative use of vulgarity, but Sharrock and Sweet handle the film so that we in the audience feel comfortable laughing along with the situation. Even the oscillating villains of the story appear to be in on the joke at times so that while the letters contain nothing but nastiness, Wicked Little Letters is far more a delightful experience than it is, say, wicked.