Recently I went to the theater with plans to see a movie I wasn't entirely in the mood for. When I got there I noticed another movie that was starting sooner, one I know practically nothing about. After glancing at it online and finding it contained several actors I liked and had a 79% Rotten Tomatoes score, I decided to take a risk and see it. That I was the only person in the theater wasn't the best of signs, but I found 'Wicked Little Letters' to be nicely low key and reasonably pleasant.
Based on a true story that happened in England circa 1920. A devout Methodist spinster (Olivia Coleman) living with her aged parents (Timothy Spall plays her dad) begins receiving vile and profane anonymous letters. The chief suspect is her neighbor, an Irish single mother with a notoriously foul mouth (Jessie Buckley). The Irish woman is arrested and spends some time in prison before being bailed out by friends prior to her trial. After her release more and more locals begin receiving similar vile and insulting letters and the whole thing becomes a national news story. A female police officer (Anjana Vasan), whose superiors don't take her seriously, dosen't believe Jessie Buckley wrote the letters and sets out to prove her innocence.
You probably get where this is going, but it has a lite charm in getting there and a real cozy mystery vibe to it. But also alot of swearing.
This is a movie with some post racial casting, for example actress Anjana Vasan is Singaporian ethnically, but her being a racial minority is not relevant to the plot; this is an alternate version of 1920 where racism isn't a thing, but sexism is. I don't have a problem with this except that it throws off my subtext radar, when in a period piece film you don't immediately know if a characters race is a plot point you need to pay contextual attention to, or if it's not relevant.
'Wicked Little Letters' feels more like something that would be on Masterpiece Theater then a theatrical feature, but it's an interesting enough obscure historical story with good performances from the four principle leads. **1/2
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