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When something bad happens in a small town, word can spread quickly—until everyone seems to know about it and have an opinion. And Wicked Little Letters explores what happened to one small town when something entirely appalling happened to one of its families, causing everyone in town to take sides.
Wicked Little Letters tells the true story of a scandal that shocked the seaside town of Littlehampton in the 1920s. When quiet, conservative Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) begins receiving foul-mouthed letters, everyone suspects her wild Irish neighbor, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley), of sending them. Rose insists that she had nothing to do with the letters—and Woman Police Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) isn’t convinced that she’s guilty. With Rose’s trial about to begin, Officer Moss enlists the help of some of the other ladies in town to begin her own investigation.
In a time when women were seen as fragile, weak, and inferior, Gladys is treated as little more than a mascot at the police station. But she refuses to sit quietly at the front desk and let the men stand around laughing and joking and messing up this case. Like her late father before her, Gladys is dedicated to uncovering the truth.
While Gladys may be a serious, straight-faced character who grounds the story, though, she’s surrounded by big personalities—not just loud and boisterous and wildly unladylike Rose and prim and proper and perpetually outraged Edith but the rest of the town’s female residents as well. As they gather together for their regular Christian Women’s Whist nights, they discuss these often hilariously profane letters—and bicker about whether or not Rose might be responsible. And when Gladys enlists their help, they’re eager to join the investigation and prove their usefulness.
Underneath the outrageousness of the situation and the wacky profanities of the letters, there’s also a story here about the frustration felt by women of the time, whose lives were under the control of men. This madcap caper certainly has a lot to say about small-town life in the 1920s, but, in the end, it all feels a little awkward and unbalanced, its message a little muddled.
Wicked Little Letters tells a stranger-than-fiction story about lies and scandal in a small town. But while it offers a mix of comedy, mystery, and sometimes surprisingly dark drama, in blending it all together, it doesn’t seem to know what really wants to be.
You can join the investigation when Wicked Little Letters arrives in select theaters on April 5, 2024.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
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