RELEASED WICKED LITTLE LETTERS
(UK 15/ROI 15, 100 mins, StudioCanal, available now via Premium Video On Demand rental, available on digital platforms, also available on DVD/Blu-ray, Comedy/ Drama/Romance)
Starring: Jessie Buckley, Olivia Colman, Anjana Vasan, Timothy Spall, Gemma Jones, Hugh Skinner, Paul Chahidi, Joanna Scanlan, Eileen Atkins.
Following an altercation at a birthday party, God-fearing spinster Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) begins to receive hateful handwritten missives full of blush-inducing slurs.
The Swans are convinced that rambunctious next-door neighbour Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley) is the culprit.
With the support of her iron-fisted father Edward (Timothy Spall) and mother Victoria (Gemma Jones), Edith reluctantly makes a statement to Constable Papperwick (Hugh Skinner) at the local police station.
As Rose stands trial, fellow o cer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) defies her superior, Constable Spedding (Paul Chahidi), to challenge the evidence and expose the real culprit with the help of residents Ann (Joanna Scanlan) and Mabel (Eileen Atkins).
Wicked Little Letters is a gloriously foul-mouthed comedy drama, based on a genuine poison pen letter case that scandalised post-First World War Britain and vaulted the sleepy seaside town of Littlehampton on to the front pages of national newspapers.
Buckley and Colman are spirited sparring partners and Spall exudes menace as a fusty patriarch wielding insidious control over his terrified daughter.
Jonny Sweet’s script careens like an excitable puppy between hot-button topics including domestic violence, institutional sexism and xenophobia but doesn’t dwell long enough with any issue to dig satisfyingly beneath the surface.
He doesn’t hold back with the expletives, rifling through a vast lexicon of crude language in less than two hours including one expertly timed c-bomb.
The identity of the potty-mouthed pensmith is evident to any fan of Murder, She Wrote or Scooby-Doo before director Thea Sharrock formally unmasks them on screen.
Rating: ***