The library is officially open with Wicked Little Letters, a swearing fest that would make RuPaul's reading challenges proud, even if it's not as unhinged as the trailers promised.
Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley reunite after starring in The Lost Daughter (where they played the same character in two different time periods) as they share the screen for the first time. As the two opposite ends of this poison-pen war, their chemistry is what makes the movie float.
The fact that it's a true story is a big part of the movie's charm too – every single insult here, from "sad stinky bitch" and "foxy-arsed old whore" to "you stink of common shit", is part of the original source material written in the 1920s, believe it or not.
Set in the seaside town of Littlehampton, in West Sussex, the movie starts when the very demure Edith Swan (Colman) receives a new anonymous letter, which she reads with her authoritarian father Edward (Timothy Spall) and her submissive mother Victoria (Gemma Jones).
For weeks, Edith has been receiving these letters, which someone close to her is using to verbally abuse her in incredibly imaginative ways.
Although there is no proof, both her father and the police officers in charge think Rose Gooding (Buckley), Edith's potty-mouthed Irish neighbour, is behind all of it. A single mother with an appetite for drinking and swearing out loud, Rose becomes the only suspect in the case.
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"She's what we've feared would come after the war," Edward says, making it clear that she is not being accused because there is evidence against her, but because of society's prejudices about liberated women.
Meanwhile, Gladys Moss (Black Mirror's Anjana Vasan) has become the first female police officer in West Sussex, following in her late father's footsteps.
It's a great accomplishment, but her reality is far from ideal – her colleagues don't respect her and she is seen as a glorified secretary tasked with preparing tea and dealing with female witnesses when their emotions get the better of them.
When the case starts getting serious and Rose is arrested, Gladys is the only one trying to find the truth. She recruits a few neighbours to start an unofficial investigation, defying her superiors not only to bring real justice, but also to prove her skills as an officer of the law.
Through Jonny Sweet's script, Wicked Little Letters' true story turns into a feminist tale depicting a transformative moment in time.
After taking on a more active role in the workforce during World War I and achieving groundbreaking rights towards universal suffrage, women were pushing for roles in more traditionally masculine spaces, from Parliament to the police force.
The movie explores women's oppression in British society at that time while also touching on topics like domestic abuse, religious fanaticism and institutional corruption. It also involuntarily evokes today's online hate and troll culture, which makes it incredibly relevant for modern audiences. And it's also a funny comedy!
As you might guess straightaway, it's a lot for a 100-minute movie.
It's commendable the movie is ambitious enough to put all that onto its plate, but the result is a mishmash that fails to focus on anything in particular. It also means that, instead of the swearing extravaganza some viewers might expect, this is more of a toned-down comedy with few explosive moments and dramatic undertones.
Every foul word thrown out in the movie is satisfyingly naughty, however, and plays into viewers' expectations of what a traditional British period movie ought to be. And when Colman and Buckley are the ones selling the lines, everything sounds so much better.
Maybe because of that, we are left grumbling that the movie doesn't go totally berserk with its premise, but it makes for an enjoyable watch anyway.
Wicked Little Letters is now out in UK cinemas.
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Mireia (she/her) has been working as a movie and TV journalist for over eight years. Based in the UK, she is a former deputy movies editor at Digital Spy, and previously worked for the Spanish magazine Fotogramas. Mireia's work has been published in other outlets such as Esquire and Elle in Spain, and WeLoveCinema and GamesRadar+ in the UK. She is also a published author, having written the essay Biblioteca Studio Ghibli: Nicky, la aprendiz de bruja about Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service.
During her years as a freelance journalist and film critic, Mireia has covered festivals around the world and has interviewed high-profile talents such as Kristen Stewart, Ryan Gosling, Jake Gyllenhaal and many more. She's also taken part in juries such as the FIPRESCI jury at Venice Film Festival and the short film jury at Kingston International Film Festival in London. LinkedIn
