"Wicked Little Letters" by Thea Sharrock (2023)

 

Two neighbours who live literary "cheek by jowl" grew estranged and the animosity between them eventually erupts in a local scandal, resulting in a court case gleefully reported by the press. The little town of Littlehampton is almost completely on the side of religious and righteous spinster Edith (Olivia Colman) while only the female police agent Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) suspect that perhaps the Irish single mother Rose (Jessie Buckley) might be the real victim. 

There is a tradition of small, adorable British movies created with tiny cast and limited budget that clearly stays away from big explosions, special effects and fireworks - something perfect for Sunday afternoon TV nap - like "The Duke" (2020), "See how they run" (2022) or "Empire of Light" (2022) where the main focus is on the good, old fashioned story and solid acting - Brits have that particular winning combination of semi-sentimental comedy that sometimes borders on serious drama and they also have some spectacular acting talents. I wanted to see this from the moment I heard about it, mainly because I love Olivia Colman and would always want to see her in anything she does. Strange enough, the only time I didn't really care for her role was actually the very first time I saw her in "The Favourite" (2018) for which she won Oscar - it might have been showered with awards but there's not one single positive character in the whole movie so it was a bit difficult to watch. Here she is a delightful spinster enjoying all the attention the press gives her as a victim of hate mail - she positively gloats over her description in the newspapers and everybody thinks she is such a noble sufferer. Everybody except the female police officer who suspect things are not what they always seems - but she is the first and the only woman in police force, where male colleagues basically ignore everything she says.

I thought the story was interesting enough to look it up online and yes, this has all more or less happen as it presented here. It is actually a genuinely interesting story, although I have no idea why on earth the producers insisted on multi-racial cast where there is absolutely no need for it - the original characters were all white and pushing brown skinned and black actors in 1920s story just looks completely artificial. This and behaviour of "Rose" (totally modern-day) is a bit far stretched and works against the movie. It feels more like obligatory ticking of the boxes than anything else.