“Wicked Little Letters” is a lightweight comedy film coupled with a bit of mystery. While it is not that difficult for us to guess the answer to the mystery inside the story even before its half point, the movie remains buoyed by its cheerful mood and several good performances even at that point, and we gladly go along with that.

The story, which is set in a small British town named Littlehampton around the 1920s, begins with a situation which would instantly draw the attention of Agatha Christie’s famous rural sleuth Miss Marple. Another anonymous poison letter has been just delivered to a local spinster named Edith Swan (Olivia Colman), and, though she is rather reluctant at first, she is eventually pushed by her domineering father Edward (Timothy Spall) to report her ongoing incident to the local police.

As subsequently talking with the local chief constable of the town, Edith says that she suspects that her neighbor Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley) is the one who has sent those anonymous poison letters. When Rose moved to the house right next to Edith’s along with her young daughter, she surely drew lots of attention as a single mother quite open and forthright about her close relationship with her boyfriend, and this certainly shocked Edith to say the least, who has had a repressed conservative daily life under her strict father. Nevertheless, Edith and Rose somehow befriended each other for a while despite that for a while, but then they became quite estranged from each other due to a conflict ignited by the clash between Edith’s father and Rose.

Even though there is no incriminating evidence against her from the very beginning, the local police decide to arrest Rose, who naturally insists that she did not write any of those anonymous poison letters. Fortunately, Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasa), a young female police officer in the local police station who has aspired to follow the footsteps of her detective father, believes Rose, but, not so surprisingly, her opinion on the case is immediately dismissed by her misogynistic supervisor to her frustration.

Once she begins her own little investigation, Gladys soon finds some allies to help her. There are a trio of local ladies willing to assist Gladys as the close friends of Rose, and, though their first encounter was not exactly pleasant, Rose comes to accept Glady’s help after being released on the bail paid by her good friends, because being separated from her dear daughter is the last thing she wants now.

Around that point, you can easily deduce the culprit behind those anonymous poison letters if you are familiar with the Law of Economy of Characters, but the screenplay by Jonny Sweet, which is actually inspired to some degree by a real-life case as humorously mentioned at the beginning of the film, keeps things rolling with enough wit while making some indirect points on female rights and solidarity. Nearly all of the female characters in the film including Edith and Rose are often disregarded due to their gender, and we come to care more about Edith and Rose as observing how they struggle with misogyny day by day in one way or another. While Rose sticks to her feisty appearance outside, Edith silently endures her father’s emotional abuse inside, and that is probably why they easily became close to each other at first.

In case of Gladys, she also has had a fair share of disappointment and frustration as often discriminated by her supervisor and other male police officers at her workplace, but that does not stop her at all from getting the justice for Rose. Later in the story, she and her new friends eventually discover a substantial clue, and now they will have to plan for catching a certain figure on the spot because the case becomes much more serious than before with more anonymous poison letters sent around the town.

The movie loses some of its narrative momentum during its last act as almost everything in the story is revealed as expected, but it still holds our attention thanks to the good performances from its main cast members. Olivia Colman, who also produced the film, and Jessie Buckley, who was Oscar-nominated for playing the younger version of Colman’s character in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s “The Lost Daughter” (2021), ably complement each other throughout the film, and Anjana Vasan holds her own place well between Colman and Buckley as another crucial main character in the story.

Around these three wonderful actresses, director Thea Sharrock, who recently gave us Netflix film “The Beautiful Game” (2024), assembled a number of colorful supporting characters to remember. While Timothy Spall, an ever-dependable British character actor who has constantly impressed us for more three decades, is suitably obnoxious as required, Gemma Jones is also fine as Edith’s fragile mother, and Joanna Scanlan, Lolly Adefope, Malachi Kirby, and Eileen Atkins are well-cast in their respective supporting parts.

In conclusion, “Wicked Little Letters” is a small but jolly comedy film which does as much as intended, and I fine with that. While it is a bit weak as a mystery story in my inconsequential opinion, it has enough humor and personality to support itself at least, and it is certainly recommendable for the delightful efforts of its solid cast.