Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters is the kind of film you can enjoy with your mum and immediately forget about afterward.
Never miss a great film again. Get exclusive content and hidden-gem recommendations you won’t find on the website.
Click here to sign up for the Seventh Row Newsletter.
A light, comedic early twentieth-century period piece based on a true story about women using wicked little words, Wicked Little Letters is the kind of film you can enjoy with your mum and immediately forget about afterward. Edith (Olivia Colman) and Rose (Jessie Buckley) play neighbours who like each other but don’t quite get along. Rose is forthright and potty-mouthed; Edith is a seemingly buttoned-up old maid. When Edith starts receiving anonymous letters full of dirty (read: wicked) words, folks assume Edith must be responsible. Trouble starts brewing. Edith, a straightforward single mother with much to lose from a jail sentence, denies any part in it. She reasons that she wouldn’t put something in a letter that she could say out loud. But then, who could it be? You’ve probably already figured it out.
There’s nothing particularly new or surprising here. Buckley has made a career out of playing feisty young women (think her other Rose, Wild Rose). Colman has already played an older version of a Buckley character in The Lost Daughter. It’s no surprise that their characters here have a lot in common — nor that Edith curses like a sailor. Everyone is as good as they need to be for a film that never takes any risks. There’s enjoyable supporting work from a dour Timothy Spall, Gemma Jones and Eileen Atkins as town busybodies, plus Hugh Skinner. Fresh from her Olivier Win for Streetcar, Anjana Vasan also gets a great showcase as the sleuthing Lady Police Officer.
Director Thea Sharrock began her career getting Harry Potter naked with a horse on the West End (Equus, 2007). She quickly showed much promise as a Shakespeare director on stage (As You Like It at The Globe in 2010) and on screen (The Hollow Crown: Henry V, where she whipped Tom Hiddleston into verse-speaking shape in 2012). Whether from lack of other opportunities or deliberate choice, she has since, like her latest film, taken a path of risk-free blandness.
Wicked Little Letters is a step up from her career nadir, the ableist romance Me Before You (2016). But with a Disney film in production and a new Bill Nighy Netflix film about solving homelessness with soccer, Wicked may be as edgy as she’s now willing to get.
Related reading/listening to our review of Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters
More Thea Sharrock: Read our review of Sharrock’s TV film Henry V, starring Tom Hiddleston as King Henry. Listen to our 21st Folio podcast on Sharrock’s Henry V, where we compare it to Branagh’s film adaptation.
More Jessie Buckley: Read about why Jessie Buckley in Beast was one of the best emerging performers at Sundance 2018. Catch Buckley in Misbehaviour and The Lost Daughter.
More delightful British period pieces: We highly recommend Pride, The Lady in the Van, and One Life.
