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Wicked Little Letters is exactly what most of the townsfolk of Littlehampton are receiving, in 1920, full of profanity I can’t repeat here, and it all appears to be coming from the pen of uncouth neighbour Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley – The Lost Daughter, with Colman), according to Edith Swan (Olivia Colman – Wonka), who has just received her 19th nervous breakdown in the form of another missive.
Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan – We Are Lady Parts) is a new WPC who sits in when Rose is interviewed by a cop, “in case of women’s hysteria and tears”, during which we learn how Rose and Edith were once firm friends, when the former moved into the area, despite her potty mouth. They are very chalk and cheese, given how Edith is posh, and lives with her Mum and Dad (Timothy Spall and Gemma Jones).
It comes across that the letters began after a misunderstanding, so is it all a fuss about nothing? And did Rose actually send them, or someone else?
As for Moss, she wanted to become a cop after her Dad was killed in the line of duty in 1911, with his name on a bench by the seaside, making me think this was filmed in Blackpool, but then I’ve never been to Littlehampton and I see that’s by the seaside, beside the sea, too. Then again, Full Metal Jacket substituted London Docklands for Vietnam, so all bets are off.
Wicked Little Letters has a great cast, all brilliantly bouncing off each other. Plus, it has a snappy script and it’s so wordy, so I really need to see this again in order to catch the whole of it.
If there’s one daft thing, it’s that women cops aren’t well-thought of at that time, hence why Moss takes it upon herself to investigate, as well as the fact she wants to follow in her late father’s footsteps. In reality in 1920, she would’ve followed in line and not rocked the boat. But then this is cinema, not reality.
Meanwhile, I also had something very odd happen, which I also later put on Reddit, the day after it happened. So, here it is:
So, 10 kids run into a Wicked Little Letters screening…
Sounds like a start to a bad joke, but by around 7.15pm last night in the Trafford Centre, with the film around 20 minutes from the end, a certain something happened, but in the previous 30 mins, I’d heard a bit of a kerfuffle outside, a couple of times, assuming it was just kids being loud after coming out of a CGI film.
Then the door to screen 6 flung open, and 10 lads run in, and storm up the stairs, and must’ve sat around 3 rows from the back, in what was quite a packed screening, so I wonder if they checked the app beforehand so they knew where to sit (presuming people actually sit in the seats they book).
I was in row C, but a woman in front – who chose that seat late in the film, as she seemed to have been up & down to the presumably pay a visit a couple of times, so now wanted to be close to the door – went out, and then a few mins later, about five staff came in, looked up towards the back, then one went up and obviously ordered them out, and back down they trundled, one actually apologising as they went.
Given how the film was like a typical old-school British farce at times, and how it was gearing up for the finale, it felt like I was in a play, and some of the cast had burst off the stage and were running into the audience!
BTW, it’s quite an amusing film, as was Lisa Frankenstein which I saw beforehand. And with LF at 3.45pm and WLL at 5.30pm, and LF being 103 minutes, I went out of that screen (1), checked in for WLL, then into that one just as the “It’s time” bit came on.
Thankfully, the likes of Killers of the Flower Moon, Avatar, Avatar: The Way Of Water, and the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (my first time, last Sept) have trained my bladder better…
As an aside, there’s no post-credits scene for either film, but for LF, I was still there to the end, as I wanted to check the ’80s music in the credits, as it’s set in 1989, and I’m amazed that finally, someone else has heard of When In Rome’s The Promise, as it was used in the opening credits.
Wicked Little Letters is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 100 minutes
Release date: February 23rd 2024
Studio: Studiocanal
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Thea Sharrock
Producers: Graham Broadbent, Olivia Colman, Peter Czernin, Ed Sinclair, Jo Wallett
Screenplay: Jonny Sweet
Cast:
Rose Gooding: Jessie Buckley
Edith Swan: Olivia Colman
Police Officer Gladys Moss: Anjana Vasan Edward Swan: Timothy Spall Victoria Swan: Gemma Jones Constable Papperwick: Hugh Skinner Nancy Gooding: Alisha Weir
Mabel: Eileen Atkins
Ann: Joanna Scanlan
Kate: Lolly Adefope
Mr. Treading: Jason Watkins
Father Ambrose: Tim Key
Bill: Malachi Kirby
Dorothea: Susie Fairfax
Chief Constable Spedding: Paul Chahidi
Mr. Scales: Richard Goulding
Police Sergeant: Grant Crookes
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.