At least seeing Coleman and Buckley on the same screen is an improvement over previous films. This is the only improvement, but don't worry about it.
Based on actual historical events, “Wicked Little Letters'' appealed to art-house audiences with a veneer of tea-like class pasted over cartoonish characters and changing social values. This is a work that will make you happy. This movie is a lot of fun and also surprisingly obvious. It's a slapstick comedy of manners that hints at, but only hints at, human dark impulses.
Colman plays Edith Swan, a middle-aged churchwoman who still lives in a working-class neighborhood of Littlehampton, dealing with the failures of her father (Timothy Spall) and mild-mannered mother (Gemma Jones). be. Rose Gooding, who plays Buckley, has just arrived from Ireland with her young daughter (Alesha Weir) and her new boyfriend (Malachi Kirby), and her delicious pub hopping is her favorite. has become a local scandal. Someone has sent Edith anonymous poison pen letters – letters so outrageous and descriptively obscene that they are practically an art form – and foul-mouthed. Rose immediately comes under suspicion. She sensibly asks Rose why she should bother writing to Edith when she could say the same thing to her face if she wanted to.
The beginning of “Wicked Little Letters” makes sure the audience knows that Rose is not the culprit. In one sense, she is a strict but loving mother, and in another sense, she is a free-spirited horse. But who? The script features a small number of characters, including a delightfully comical trio of Edith's friends and fellow whist players, the Bold Lady (Lori Adefope), the Bold Lady (Eileen Atkins), and the Bossy Lady (Joanna Scanlan). Spread potential charges around a group of suspects. Female police officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) is also involved in the case, but not only does she follow her very logical instincts, but she also works with her fellow police officer (Hugh Skinner) and chief constable (Paul Chahidi). They also have to endure humiliating treatment. first order.
“Wicked Little Letters'' pulls off the paradoxical trick of being both broad and sensitive. The first is due to the director's intention to emphasize every action with a heavy Sharpie, and the second is due to the cast's delicate coloring of the outlines of the characters. depth and vitality. If there's a villain here, it's the father. The father's tradition-bound misogyny and emotional abuse of her daughter are given real malice by Spall. The racist casting of some roles sometimes has the effect of transporting the viewer out of the film's time period, but otherwise the eyes are like beacons alerting us to every clue. We will miss Vasan's entertaining portrayal of a tenacious detective. .
And the acting by the two leads is also great. Buckley plays a woman with a big heart, a loud voice, and no filter, but Rose has a subtle fear behind her bravado: that she'll be in prison, that she'll lose her child forever. Instills in her the knowledge that she may lose. Coleman uses every trick in her rich arsenal to show us that Edith—kind, repressed, and conceited—is a far more complex character than she appears. You may or may not be able to guess who wrote the letter to Littlehampton before the filmmakers spill the beans in the third act. But you also might not be prepared for the psychological damage that comes with the revelations or the glimpses of thwarted anger – no idea how the director of 'Wicked Little Letters' handles them. If you have, the glimpse you get can be horrifying.
R. at area theaters. language – a lot Regarding language and sexual content. 100 minutes.
Ty Burr is the author of Ty Burr's Watch List, a movie recommendation newsletter. tyburrswatchlist.com.