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| Images Courtesy Studiocanal |
There are few things more entertaining and satisfying than well-timed profanity used to cut through stuffy social norms. Wicked Little Letters (2023) uses a true story about a vulgar letter-writer in 1920s England to do just that.
Edith Swan (Olivia Coleman) goes to the police after receiving numerous letters calling her all sorts of vulgar names. Edith, a ‘respectable spinster’ according to the local paper, lives with her parents (an almost unrecognizable Timothy Spall and Gemma Jones) in a row house in Littlehampton next door to Rose Gooding. Rose (Jessie Buckley) began as friends with her neighbor, despite Edith being very religious and Rose being ‘brash’.
But a rift between the two develops, and then the vulgar letters pile up. So Edith goes to the police. Rose is blamed and imprisoned until a trial, leaving her boyfriend to take care of her daughter. Most of the small town are quick to believe this since Rose is an Irish immigrant, a single mom, and known for being loud and vulgar.
Many of the details of the true story were changed for dramatic and narrative effect. Rose was actually British and also lived with her husband in the row house next to Edith. But the numerous vulgar letters did land Rose in jail and lead to an investigation to prove her innocence.
Other women in the town worked together to figure out who was writing the letters. In the film, ‘Woman Officer’ Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) begins to suspect Rose’s innocence and works with other women to catch the writer. Pig farmer Ann (Joanna Scanlan) and post office worker Kate (Lolly Adefope) help to prove Rose innocent and catch the ‘poison letters’ writer.
The changes to the timeline and other story details help to highlight the misogyny and inequity of the time period. While having a female police officer was a huge step forward for equality, other societal norms were unchanged. Gladys suffers through sexism in the police force, while other women suffer for stepping up to do more male jobs after many men were lost in WWI.
This makes for an extremely entertaining dark comedy that doesn’t overstay its welcome. It also delivers what viewers would want: a curse-off scene between Edith and Rose. Had the film been longer than its brief 110 minutes, it could have made characters less cartoonish and more than just caricatures. Instead, it delivers a tight and very funny historical story that accomplishes everything it sets out to.
-Eric Beach