Wicked Little Letters

I wasn't sure what to make of this movie, it's good in parts, it has two very good central performances from Olivia Coleman and Jessie Buckley but suffers from a really uneven tone.

The tone problems all stem from the direction of the piece. Its great to see such a diverse cast, but that diversity of casting does a historical injustice to Karpal Kaur Sandhu who was the first serving Asian woman in the police, her story is truly heroic and tragic, and ignoring any racial tension in 1920's Britain is also anachronistic and fantastical. Those moments give the work an uneven tone, and the longer the movie goes on the more the direction lurches from a fun tone it something closer to what the movie can be.

The outstanding moments in this film come from Jessie Buckley, who like Maggie Smith in her younger years bursts onto the screen with energy and charisma. Olivia Coleman is always full of nuance and depth - those two central performances carry the movie. Anjana Vasan is charming and full of comic energy she is required to carry a part which has some very odd writing and character development. She does it like a star.

A very odd movie in some ways but worth you time if you can get over the anachronisms and the uneven tone.