A new film by Thea Sharrock takes us to the British town of Littlehampton in the 1920’s where a scandal is quickly unfolding. It would seem as though someone in town has taken to writing vile letters to a pious woman named Edith Swan (Olivia Colman). As the film opens, she reads the nineteenth.

Edith suspects that the letters are being written by her neighbour, Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley). A young Irish woman with a daughter and partner in-tow, Rose has been a hurricane lashing at the shores of the seaside town ever since she first arrived this year. Her suspicions are enough to get Rose arrested for libel, and set for trial to determine the extent of her punishment.

But is Rose really the one whose poison pen is unleashing such profane prose? Or might someone else in-town have it out for Edith and her godly ways?

In the afterglow of WICKED LITTLE LETTERS, one has to wonder if we really understand how upsetting our words can be – especially when written down. Now obviously, we have moved well beyond the stamped envelopes, fountain pens, and cursive script that we see in this film (a pity, some might say, but that’s another post). However, we still spend much of our days writing to each other in short bursts and tiny missives. What we say to each other in those electronic notes can cut – not so much that these thoughts went through a person’s mind, but that they took the time to actually note them down.

Such expressions cut like rusty razor blades – painful and surprisingly deep. Someone that we know not only had these negative thoughts about us, but took even a few seconds to make a record of it and dispatch it to us. “They’re just words” our parents used to tell us…but the truth is that words matter, and words can wound deeply.

However, what this little yarn also wants us to consider is the source of the words. What is it that makes us do what we do and say what we say? There is no excuse for treating another person with disrespect, of course – but is there a reason? How does a person become compelled to describe another human being with such vile terms? How does a person get compelled to lie about what they did and how they did it? The answers can be complicated and illuminating, reminding us that we never truly know what the people in our life have endured.

These ideas are tokens that we will take away from the film – like ink stains on our fingertips. In the present of WICKED LITTLE LETTERS, these tokens are handed over with charm, humour, gravity, and a lot of delightful filth. It’s an experience very much like the letters at its centre; short and direct, but with a great deal purpose and intent.