Movie: Wicked Little Letters
Production Companies: Film4, Blueprint Pictures, South of the River Pictures, People Person Pictures
Director: Thea Sherrock
Producers: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Ed Sinclair, Olivia Colman, Jo Wallett
Scriptwriter: Jonny Sweet
Main Cast: Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Joanna Scanlan
Release Date: February 23rd 2024 (UK)
Running Time: 100 minutes
Certificate: 15
Introduction
F**king hell, that was quite funny wasn’t it? The standard terrible pun segue aside, Wicked Little Letters is a very fun and entertaining watch, with a very stacked cast with some of the UK’s funniest actors. However, as I’ll elaborate on later it does occasionally struggle with creating another joke other than ha, ha funny to hear posh people swearing. If I wanted to hear that many posh people swear, I’d just go to a Chelsea match. Also, yes this is the film you’ve seen all the advertisements for but never really remembered the name other than its the Olivia Colman swearing film… Anyway, without further ado here is my review of the film.
Synopsis
Wicked Little Letters is based on the real scandal that rocked the town of Littlehampton, England in the 1920s where a series of profane letters begin to target Edith (Colman) and her neighbours. Naturally, suspicion starts to fall on Irish immigrant Rose (Buckley) who starts being targeted for allegedly writing the letters. All this leads to a massive police investigation as Rose desperately fights to keep her daughter while the entire town slowly begins to turn on her for definitely not discriminatory reasons. That probably sounds like a serious period piece instead of a black comedy film but it’s definitely the latter.
Analysis
The Swearing in Wicked Little Letters
There’s no better place to start than the central plot device of the film: the swearing and the juxtaposition the film is playing with. It’s very true that hearing a lot of very posh English actors and actresses trying to look appalled by swearing all whilst they’re doing it too is objectively funny. However, the film does often use it as a crutch to support an otherwise weak mystery drama.
So, thankfully the cast is as stacked as it is because otherwise this film would probably be diagnosed with a serious case of Melissa McCarthy Syndrome. Basically, the fact it only has one joke and keeps making that joke even though the joke stopped being funny when they first told it. Again, the issue isn’t the swearing, it’s the dependance on it to prop up a ridiculously paper thin script which I may also briefly touch on.
The Cast in Wicked Little Letters
However, for as much as the premise of making a film about posh people swearing with about as much mystery and intrigue as Kylian Mbappe’s next club is very silly, the cast absolutely make the most of it which is a decent silver lining. Just look at the fact that the two leads are Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley and to the surprise of no one they’re fantastic together. Also, I don’t think there’s a better suited actress to being a prim and proper English person than Olivia Colman as seen in this and the Crown to name but two.
Also, the supporting cast is just as good with Hugh Skinner (aka Harry from Fleabag), Lolly Adefope of Taskmaster and Ghosts fame, Timothy Spall (aka Peter Pettigrew) and many more talented actors and actresses. This film goes to show that a talented cast can save even the most mediocre script.
Summary
To summarise Wicked Little Letters, this is a fun watch with some funny moments which is massively carried by the strength of its cast. So while it may be a one joke film thankfully the cast save Thea Sherrock’s film which is f***ing unbelievable when you look at the flimsy ass script. Also, check out the interview with Olivia Colman where she’s asked about her favourite swear word because like her performance it’s comedic gold.
Overall Rating: 6/10 – Reasonable
Target Audience: 15+
Content Warning: Mild Sex and Nudity, Severe Profanity, Mild Violence and Gore, Mild Alcohol, Drugs and Smoking
Recommendation: Yes
