Capsule Review

Netflix is a fairly recent movie, Wicked Little Letters.  I watched it the other night, and thought it was superb.  It stars Oscar-winner Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley.  And is directed by Thea Sharrock (who directed another new movie on Netflix, the lighter, but fun The Beautiful Game with Bill Nighy, based on the real-life international soccer tournament for homeless people).  And written by Jonny Sweet.

Wicked Little Letters is also based on a true story, when in a small town in 1920 England vicious and egregiously profane poison pen letters began being sent to one woman only, and then -- after an arrest, but then released -- increased to much of the town.  It became a famous case at the time throughout England, as officials and residents tried to figure out who was, in fact, sending them.  The film is being positioned as a comedy, though calling it a dark comedy is far more accurate.  Or perhaps even a drama that's often very funny, in a sly, off-beat way.

It is wonderfully directed.  Not the tentative work of a stage director (as the acclaimed Thea Sharrock is, including the Broadway revival of Equus with Daniel Radcliffe, and Moliere's The Misanthrope starring Keira Knightley and Damian Lewis) making a foray into film.  It’s just really well directed.  There also isn’t a performance anything less than spot-on.  Also in the film are Timothy Spall and Dame Eileen Atkins.  But everyone is great, including Anjana Vashan, who plays a major supporting role as a young Woman Police Officer.  (I describe her part that way because that's what her title official is, a bit of a sore point to her, and Jessie Buckley relentlessly reminds her. "You don't have to keep calling yourself that!  I can see you're a woman!!")
 
Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley play opposite personalities – one, religious repressed and the sole recipient at first, and the other, her next-door neighbor, a guttural swearing free spirit. (Yes, no shock that Colman is the former, Buckley the latter.)  Both are absolutely great.

It's not for everyone.  The language -- mostly when the letters are read (all real, by the way.  The film shows copies over the end credits), but not limited to them -- takes expletives to an near-operatic level.  Though at a point, it becomes almost comic.

It's just really terrific.  Here's the trailer.  Given the limitations of a trailer, it does a pretty respectable job.