Wicked little letters
Year of release : 2023
Run time : 1h40min
Genre : Dark Comedy / Mystery
The movie is based on the real life 1920's Littlehampton libels.
In 1920 Littlehampton, Edith , a spinster and religious woman, becomes the target of hate mail. Her very controlling father thinks it's their next door neighbor, Irish immigrant,who curses a lot, Rose.
After about 20 letters like this, Edith's father has had enough, and seeks justice from the police.
Questioned by the police, Edith admits she and Rose were at first friends, until Rose hit one of her father's friends. This was shortly followed by a visit from the Child Protection Services, and Rose suspected Edith, ending their friendship.
Rose is arrested, and imprisoned for 2 months and a half, since she can't pay the bail.
A 'woman police officer', Gladys, doesn't think Rose did it, and wants to investigate, but her superior forbids her from investigating. She noticed the differences between Rose's hand writing and the one from the letters, the writer of the letters having a particular way of writing the G. Her superior doesn't think that is relevant to the investigation, and just believes blindly Rose did it, although, the writing would be the only proof!!
Gladys meets with Edith's friends, and two of Edith's friends bail Rose out. Rose asks for Gladys' help,and although Gladys refuses her, Gladys starts investigating with the help of Edith's friends, as she is sure Edith writes the letters, after she saw her writing down her name, writing the G in the same way as in the letters.
The letters increase in number and are sent to more people once Rose is out, making the police think Rose guilty.
The movie was entertaining and funny, although the leads were unlikeable: Edward(Edith's father) was a misogynist,who couldn't even cut his own cake, and who wanted Edith to live alone,at home ,caring for him. He grounded her for something she said, and the woman looks 50! WTF?!
Edith seems to enjoy the fame she gets, and the pain she causes the people around her. SPOILERS She seems to suffer from one of those afflictions (masochism?),of people who, when someone causes them emotional pain they cut themselves, in her case, she writes nasty letters to people.
Gladys' superior and colleagues, are misogynists who fail at their job and don't let Gladys do her job either.
The actors were entertaining.
I honestly don't remember the soundtrack,if it didn't bother me, it means it was fine.
The movie is on Netflix with subscription, on Amazon, AppleTv for rent / sale,on AppleTv+ is 7 days free, and you can buy tickets to watch it at the cinema from Fandango.
Rating : Worth a watch !
here are the people and the case the movie was inspired from,courtesy of Daily Mirror:
