Jessie Buckley steals show in profane Britcom
One of the more fun things about “Wicked Little Letters” is knowing that it really happened. It’s a movie based on true events that actually is based on true events, rather than being loosely inspired by them.
In the early 1920s, two women, living next door to each other in a small town in Sussex, had a falling out. They were very different from each other — Edith Swan was withdrawn, religious and conservative, while Rose Gooding was a loud, fun-loving single mother. Soon after they became estranged, Edith started receiving profane and insulting letters, which she reported to police, accusing Rose of having written them. This led to a legal battle that lasted years, though the movie condenses the action to a handful of months.
As presented in the film, the clash is like a battle between two periods of social history, with Edith (Olivia Colman) embodying the staidness of the 19th century and Rose (Jessie Buckley) in the advance guard of emerging 20th-century womanhood.
But from the beginning, we know, for a number of reasons, that Rose could not have done this. First, she is too modern, much like the viewers watching, to do anything so peculiar. She has no trouble speaking her mind, and Edith lives right next door, so why would she write her a letter?
The story is well-constructed. For part of the film, we can’t wait to find out who did it, and then we spend the next part hoping that the real culprit is exposed. Thea Sharrock (“The Beautiful Game”) establishes a slightly exaggerated tone that allows for comedy, while never minimizing the consequences of human perfidy.
The movie also has fun with the letters, which are wonderfully and graphically foul, as reimagined and written by screenwriter Jonny Sweet.
Yet if there’s one thing that drives “Wicked Little Letters,” it’s unquestionably Buckley, who presents Rose as funny, warm and exuberant, a big personality that’s quick to laugh and just as quick to fly into a rage.