WICKED LITTLE LETTER S 15

Mail disorder…

★★★★★ OUT 23 FEBRUARY CINEMAS

Toast’s annual sale was a big day in Littlehampton

Areal-life 1920s scandal takes centre stage in Thea Sharrock’s dark comedy. It’s set in the quaint English coastal town of Littlehampton, where residents begin receiving a series of foul-mouthed anonymous letters. Accusations are levelled at Rose (Jessie Buckley), an Irish immigrant and single mum viewed with suspicion by some - notably pious neighbour Edith (Olivia Colman), who still lives with her parents (Timothy Spall, Gemma Jones) and seems envious of Rose’s free-spirited ways.

When the police (Hugh Skinner, Paul Chahidi) are called, little progress is made. Only Gladys (Anjana Vasan), an intuitive WPC, has the sense to believe that Rose might not be the guilty party, but of course, this being 1920, she’s patronised by the patriarchy, her hunches ignored.

Colman and Buckley are eminently watchable, supported by a uniformly excellent cast from the sublime Vasan to the likes of Jason Watkins, Joanna Scanlan and Eileen Atkins.

The main sticking point is the tone. Sharrock (Me Before You) doesn’t seem entirely comfortable with Jonny Sweet’s screenplay, which erratically mixes dark humour (the tirades of four-letter words in the misanthropic missives) with wider social issues (women’s suffrage, domestic violence). Throughout, there’s a tendency to descend into farce that hampers these letters’ potential to say something more profound.

THE VERDICT An ultimately rather cosy tale of British eccentricity, enlivened by a superb cast.