WICKED LITTLE LETTERS (2023) – A cheeky little comedy to brighten up your mood

This is a modest scale British comedy set in a conservative small English town in the 1920’s. A scandal of sorts explodes in the town when one of the residents Edith (played by the ever-reliable Olivia Colman) receives a string of letters laden with profanities directed at her. She accuses her neighbour Rose (played by Jessie Buckley) of writing these letters simply based on Rose’s tendency to be foul-mouthed and crass behaviour. The police wantonly obliges the accusations and promptly charge Rose for the offence. Naturally all is not what it seems as the story progresses towards the eventual truth behind those nasty letters.

Wicked Little Letters is an easy going, undemanding and entertaining watch. Much of the delights comes from the performances from Olivia, Jessie and Anjana Vasan who plays the only woman police officer in the force and the only person who believes Rose is innocent. Anjana who is India born and raised in Singapore was splendidly cast displaying a subtle sense of humour and comic timing. The script keeps its moving along at a nice pace sprinkled with a witty and often with outrageously riotous colourful dialouge uttered with sweet innocence by some loveable characters.

Perhaps the major drawback to the story is that it doesn’t really takes much of an effort to figure out the real culprit and origins of the letters so that took away part of the surprise element. The overall scale and scope of the project is unambitious and modest which translates to a film that never really rises to any high points. It is just a fun watch. Call it a guilty pleasure. This should put a smile to your face if you are having a bad day.