My Frau and I saw Wicked Little Letters the other day and it was quite a good time.
Olivia Colman plays pious spinster Edith Swan who has been receiving poison pen letters from an anonymous villain. Edith lives at home with her parents and the missives are upsetting her mother and making her nasty, controlling father angrier by the day.
The letters are written very strangely, as if their composer was still a novice at the whole vulgarity thing. And so you get stilted turns of phrase such as "foxy ass piss country whore", "You dirty old bitch, you belong in hell, probably", and "Edith sucks ten cocks a week, minimum!".
One person who is not an amateur when it comes to wielding profanity is the Swan's next door neighbor, Rose Gooding, a single Irish mum who frequents the tavern, amongst other unladylike activities. Rose is accused of sending the dirty dispatches.
She is played by Jessie Buckley who is foul-mouthed, spirited, and a lot of fun to watch. Buckley was great in Men and Women Talking too. Colman does a wonderful job with her facial expressions, sometimes showing her adherence to propriety (and abhorrence at those who would deny it) while at others letting us see the damage done by the repressive patriarchy of her day.
The police investigate the letters and finger Rose as does the rest of the small town. However, PC (Police Constable?) Gladys Moss believes Rose to be innocent and she assembles a Bloodhound Gang of local ladies to prove it. Moss has her own issues/run-ins with the patriarchy in the form of the hierarchy of the police department which bolsters the theme.
We aren't bashed over the head with this theme; rather it is sprinkled here and there so that we never forget it but the patriarchy of 1920s Britain is not allowed to get in the way of the mystery and the comedy.
Wicked Little Letters is a lot of fun and hearing Colman blurt out the amateurish obscenities is hilarious.
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