Wicked Little Letters

Yet Wicked Little Letters, directed by Thea Sharrock, reveals factors other than social media platforms. A quiet British seaside village is disturbed by anonymously posted letters full of personal abuse. As the spiteful letters spread, a mystery needs solving.

In tightly packed streets, outsiders and newcomers are easy targets for suspicion. Pious Edith Swan (played by Olivia Colman) points the finger at her newly arrived neighbour, Rose Gooding (played by Jessie Buckley). But female police constable, Gladys Moss (played by Anjana Vasan) is not convinced.

Set in the 1920s, the movie cleverly explores the place of women and faith in a shifting society. The presence of a female police officer illuminates the ways minorities can be treated in male dominated organisations.

Historically, women were recruited to the police for the sole purpose of guarding women and children. Generally, they were the wives or relatives of the officers. It was not until 1915 that Edith Smith was given the powers of arrest. Following WWI, public service cuts in 1922, which fell most heavily on women, saw the numbers of police women reduced from 110 to 24 across the whole of Britain.

As Gladys Moss searches for the writer of the wicked letters, she encounters belittling stereotypes from her male colleagues. In a powerful scene, Gladys visits a local community memorial to her dead father, a well-respected police officer. Gladys finds herself asking how her father behaved toward women while he was in uniform. How did the parents and ancestors we admire contribute to the “wicked” cultures we yearn to see changed?

Similar questions emerge as Wicked Little Letters portrays the faith of Christian Britain. A trinity of vicars, funerals and Christian whist shape Edith Swan’s pious do-goodism. An opening scene reveals how quickly morality and judgment trump grace and truth. Wicked Little Letters demonstrates the damage done when feelings are suppressed. Hence (careful to avoid spoilers), the movie offers an emotional arc, from repression to expression, pride to liberative laughter.

Wicked Little Letters works in threes. Edith’s three whist partners (played by Joanna Scanlan, Lolly Adefope and Eileen Atkins) provide a perfect foil to the primness of her faith. The film’s three leading characters (Edith Swan, Rose Gooding, and Gladys Moss) are all female, each shaped by three fathers either overly present or overly absent. The result is a clever set of shifting dynamics as the who-posted-it letter-writing mystery unfolds.

Wicked Little Letters drew plenty of laughs from a comfortably full cinema. Amid the humour are some weighty issues around parental control, sexist behaviour and the nature of trolling. Matters worth pondering as we explore the fullness of resurrection life in this season of Easter.

Rev Dr Steve Taylor is the author of "First Expressions" (2019) and writes widely in theology and popular culture, including regularly at www.emergentkiwi.org.nz.