By John Corrado

Based on the real life case of the Littlehampton Letters (with an opening title card assuring us that “this is more true than you’d think”), Wicked Little Letters is an amusing trifle set in a small English town in 1920.

The story centres around the scandal involving a series of insulting letters filled with crude insults and creative swearing (the impeccable penmanship of the letters belies their offensive content), that have started appearing in letter boxes.

The letters are being sent to the posh, buttoned up Edith Swan (Olivia Colman), a “spinster” who never moved away from her parents (Timothy Spall and Gemma Jones). The blame naturally falls upon her coarse next door neighbour Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley).

Rose is a single mother from Ireland who swears, gets drunk at the pub, and has a reputation for sleeping around, all things that make her a pariah in the eyes of Edith’s church lady friends. Rose gets arrested for the letters, but woman police officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) – an anomaly in the town and on the force, who are used to this being man’s work – begins to suspect she is innocent.

At this point, Wicked Little Letters becomes a charming little detective movie, as Gladys tries to solve the case before Rose goes to prison. The screenplay by Jonny Sweet makes some attempts to tie into deeper themes about the women’s suffrage movement. But the charms of director Thea Sharrock’s (Me Before You, The One and Only Ivan) film are mostly surface level. The entertainment is found in watching the reactions of the townsfolk to the increasingly offensive yet creative wording of the letters (Spall’s reading of them is a delight).

The main draw of Wicked Little Letters is the chance to watch Colman and Buckley (who played older and younger versions of the same character in The Lost Daughter) go head-to-head. Colman is right in her wheelhouse as a proper lady with another side waiting to spill out, and Buckley sparkles as the boorish Rose, whose brash personality hides a softer heart. It’s fun to watch them bouncing off each other, as we keep waiting for the inversion of their personalities to happen. They elevate this simple but enjoyable English crowdpleaser.

Film Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)

Wicked Little Letters opens exclusively in theatres in limited release on April 5th. It’s being distributed in Canada by Mongrel Media.