Wicked Little Letters tells the tale of a cranky J, a nefarious B, and particularly pernicious Z who… wait… no that’s not right. It’s about a small town in 1920s England where a stuffy British woman is receiving profanity-laden letters in the post. Before you can harrumph through your walrus mustache, it becomes a national scandal leading to an obscenity trial. Since I guess nobody had anything better to get mad at.

A lot of this amusing film’s humor derives from its blunt, creative cussing… and the vapors and harrumphing the townsfolk go through over the indignity of these words existing at all. I suppose there’s other layers of humor… it’s an otherwise mannered and gentle British comedy.

One that has its toes in sexism and classicism. A woman police officer sets out to investigate the case and her gender is commented upon early and often. The main suspect is an Irish single mother… partly because she’s right saucy in real life but also because of her Irishness.

Jessie Buckley is the saucy Irish lady who is an amused observer to the situation and her own trial. Olivia Colman is fun as the wicked little letter recipient who is, of course, scandalized… but also secretly amused (because she’d never! <clasps pearls>). The lady police man is played by wide-eyed Anjana Vasan who brings a spry agog energy..

It’s a good, if slight, little British comedy that reminds us trolls weren’t invented by the internet. It’s probably not as directly funny as it could be (depending on your tolerance for subtle British comedy) and your grandparents would probably still clutch their pearls at the creative profanity. It’s a good decent indecent amount of fun.

Score: 81