“This is more true than you’d think.”
Truth, it’s said, is often stranger than fiction. It’s why so many stories are inspired by or adapted from real incidents. Such is the case here with the new project from director Thea Sharrock (The One and Only Ivan) and writer Jonny Sweet (Johnny English Strikes Again; Greed) as they adapt the tale of the poison pen letters that tore a tiny town apart in their film Wicked Little Letters. Though audiences are likely to come for the mystery and the one-screen pairing of Oliva Colman (Wonka; The Lost Daughter) and Jessie Buckley (Men; The Lost Daughter) as warring neighbors, there’s a fascinating larger story about the dangers of holding too tightly to such conservative perspectives that we lose the whole of a humanity in search of control.
L-R: Jessie Buckley as Rose Gooding, Olivia Colman as Edith Swan, and Gemma Jones as Victoria Swan in WICKED LITTLE LETTERS. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
August, 1920s Littlehampton in West Sussex, England, and someone’s been sending nasty letters to Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) for some time. Each one is filthier than the last, each one unsigned and unlabeled with a return address. Despite this mystery bringing horror into their lives as someone taunts and insults Edith from afar, her father Edward (Timothy Spall) suspects their Irish immigrant neighbor Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley) as the culprit due to her uncouth public (and private) behavior. With the police coming involved in the investigation, Rose’s entire world may come crashing down, causing the separation between her and her daughter Nancy (Alisha Weir) if she’s convicted. But when all the facts don’t line up, there’s enough doubt for a few to pursue the doubt and return the guilty verdict back to the sender.
The last time that Colman and Buckley co-starred in the same film, it was as the present/past versions of the same character in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 2021 drama The Lost Daughter. Now, they get to play off of each other directly, which is an absolute treat for audiences as their chemistry is through the roof. (It’s with good reason that the duo make up the marketing in the trailer.) Each actor is particularly strong in playing characters, understanding how to work dynamic tension in order to deliver laughs, tears, or a mixture of the twain. Truthfully, Wicked is best when the two are bouncing off of each other, either as friends, enemies, or frenemies. Their scenes possess greater rhythm and energy, largely due to the tête-à-tête nature of the conflict, enticing audiences by making them feel like they’re observing two high-level competitors enjoying the opportunity to contend with someone on their level. While audiences may come for these two, and be delighted the whole way, the combat of Edith and Rose is a smaller piece of a larger narrative element whose understanding gets to the heart of the adapted true story.
L-R: Timothy Spall as Edward Swan and Jessie Buckley as Rose Gooding in WICKED LITTLE LETTERS. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
The women take center stage of Wicked and it’s not just Colman and Buckley. The two are the primaries, to be sure, they are the subjects of the conflict — one harassed, one supposedly doing the harassing — but all the women of the film are involved in the struggle because of the larger implication of social, political, and religious norms of the period. While Sharrock entices audiences with a flurry of naughty words uttered gloriously by Buckley and with a startle by Colman, Sweet’s script never forgets to include references to the suffrage movement. The film takes place post-World War I, leading quite a few men in the film, especially Spall’s Edward, to speak on the sacrifices of the men who fought and died in war without so much as a concern for the women who participated in providing resources for the war. This does come up in a brief conversation by one supporting character, the delightful Eileen Atkins of Paddington 2 (2017) as Mabel, as a point to be made regarding the treatment and well-being of women as little more than accessories in the world of men whose contributions to the war effort have been largely forgotten. Mabel is, in this scene, specifically referring to how society asked women to get themselves “dirty” and then demanded that they go back to the way it was before post-war, except why should it? Historically, the suffrage movement in the U.S. saw the ratification of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote, whereas, in the United Kingdom, it was the Representation of the People Act of 1918 which afforded women the right to vote … under certain conditions. Each time a man opens his mouth, save for Malachi Kirby’s (Boiling Point) Bill, Rose’s male companion, it’s almost entirely to put down or verbal restrain a woman. Piece by piece, scene by scene, the mystery of the letter writer becomes less important and the “why” takes its place, the shape of which exists as a means of control in a continuous social construct wherein men demand and women give, yet are not offered the slimmest of appreciation. What helps maintain some of the lightness during this portion is the switch from Edith and Rose onto the Anjana Vasan’s (Cyrano; Killing Eve) Woman Police Office Gladys Moss, the sole female member of the local police and the one who decides to do more to investigate than presume guilt. As presented by Sweet, the women are the only active characters in the film in the sense that they are both making and reacting to decisions, rather than simply making declarations of intelligence or power.
There’s going to be, no doubt, some portion of the viewing audience who come to Wicked and wonder why it’s “gone woke” or why it possesses an agenda. If so, it’s likely because those people are ignorant of history or consider it too unimportant to acknowledge because the period in which the film is set is rife with this exact issue. One of the biggest slights against Rose in Littlehampton before anyone really knew anything about her is that she’s Irish, making her both an immigrant and one who comes from a country with whom the United Kingdom has a complicated history. Among the many slights Edward throws at Rose, her being from Ireland is among them, as though where she came is fine for the British Empire to colonize and control, but — ye gads! — if anyone from the Isle might come to England. It’s one of many hypocrisies that Sweet’s script seeks to explore, but never does with much depth beyond how it is touched by the Edith v. Rose battle. At the very least, the supporting cast made up of Vasan, Atkins, Joanna Scanlan (Stardust; In the Loop), and Lolly Adefope (Saltburn; The Spy Who Dumped Me) helps to lift the areas in which Edith and Rose don’t naturally make sense to carry the story and whose inclusion not only delights when they appear, but their characters bring with them necessary elements which tie all the previously mentioned issues to the forefront. For instance, the running joke of Woman Police Officer Moss full title. It’s funny the first time, but upon its repetition something darker starts to peak out.
Top-Bottom: Joanna Scanlan as Ann and Anjana Vasan as Woman Police Officer Gladys Moss in WICKED LITTLE LETTERS. Photo courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Folks looking for a fun time as curse-laden letters are sent to harass unawares bystanders are going to find it, even if not entirely in the way they expect. It’s got jabs and pokes a plenty, but that’s what brings you in to check out the film, setting up a great deal of situational comedy when it’s more of a character drama. Similarly, though the film is sold on the back of Colman and Buckley, and they do their share to earn that notion, the stuff that really makes the film work is what’s brought by the total ensemble. Through their collective work, we, the audience, see how this concern of anonymous abuse is not just an early 19th century issue, but also that what we have in place today is still shackled by the value placed upon women in a system that wasn’t originally set up to include them. Social change takes time and, even a century later, some are still having the same stupid fights while others are maintaining the same stupid xenophobia — as if on a Wednesday in their homes they haven’t said or done things out of ignorance or just plain old idiocy they might be concerned to be judged with should they be discovered. But that’s the thing that Wicked Little Letters affords, the separation between self and fiction in order to perceive a world in which we can make a difference by challenging the norms to solve mysteries and end harassment. It just requires an audience open enough to see past the charm of its leads and the hilarity of the supporting members to notice what Sharrock and Sweet want us to see.
In NYC and L.A. theaters March 29 2024.
In select theaters nationwide April 5 2024.
For more information, head to the official Sony Pictures Classics Wicked Little Letters webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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