Alex Cann's Weekly Film Blog - 2nd April

In a strange twist of fate, I've written in my other column this week about the troubles facing the Royal Mail in hitting delivery targets and turning a profit, as parcels take over and letters fade into the background. In Wicked Little Letters, we revisit a largely true story from the 1920s.

It's about how poison pen letters caused a real curtain-twitching kerfuffle in Littlehampton. The letters certainly kept the postal service busy, and seemed to be delivered pretty promptly in those days.

Olivia Coleman plays buttoned-up, strait-laced, prudish Edith Swan, a churchgoing spinster who lives with her controlling father (an on form Timothy Spall) and timid as a mouse mother (played by Gemma Jones). She spends her life obeying orders, but her fairly mundane existence is disrupted when the spiteful missives begin to arrive through her letterbox with increasing regularity. Other members of the community start to get them too. The daily postal deliveries become almost as toxic as certain social media sites in 2024.

Edith's raucous, bawdy, outspoken Irish neighbour (Jessie Buckley) quickly emerges as the prime suspect, and soon ends up behind bars, largely because she is loud and uncompromising, and seems the type who might send the poisonous post.

The film's chilling depiction of coercive control and the routine misogyny of the time somewhat diluted the belly laugh moments for me, and frankly it's not quite the frothy farce I expected from the trailer. That's not to say it doesn't have its fair share of laugh out loud moments, and the highlight for me was Anjana Vasan as the "woman police officer" determined to uncover the truth of this most perplexing case. I bought into the characters, and the running time zipped by.

It would be churlish of me to focus excessively on the fact the big reveal is not much of a surprise. Instead, I'd recommend giving this one a watch for its fantastic cast, subtle performances (especially Tim Key as the priest), and marvel at the fact it actually happened in real life, long before the days of Twitter trolls. I liked the seaside setting, and Olivia Coleman owns every scene as always. She's such a talent! As one review elsewhere says, "who doesn't love Olivia Coleman swearing for 100 minutes?"

In short, a forgotten story has been unearthed by a talented cast all clearly enjoying their roles. And I do enjoy a bit of cursing from time to time especially as I'm not allowed to say any naughty words on the radio.

Next week, I'll have reviews of Zone of Interest and The Persian Version. The former has had loads of positive reviews, but I'm a bit nervous about watching it, as it looks pretty harrowing. More on that next time. And a cheeky mention for Barbie if you still haven't got round to watching it yet...it's been overlooked by many awards judges, and remains my favourite film I've seen in the last year or so. Do give it a go if you are sceptical!