Very good, this!

'Wicked Little Letters' is fun. Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley impress in lead roles, both managing to stand out just as much as the other - Colman is particularly perfectly cast. The rest of them merit praise as well, namely Anjana Vasan and Timothy Spall.

There isn't much more to note about this really and I don't mean that in a negative way whatsoever. It's all competently put together, as those onscreen bring this rather simple film to life - and I like those type of movies. Well worth a watch! Happy that I managed to catch it at the cinema on the big screen, always nice.

Wicked Little Letters is an incredibly funny, cheeky, and punchy film that will be sure to put a smile on your face.

It follows a series of bizarre events as the pious and reserved Edith receives a string of crude letters, supposedly from her boisterous neighbour Rose. It's one of those delightful British films that brings to a light a surprisingly true story and packs it full of brilliant British talent.

The story is great fun. As mentioned it's cheeky and lewd but this isn't the only string to its bow. There are some brilliantly fleshed out and interesting lead characters as well as a great collection of supporting characters, which gives it a great blend of comedy and drama.

Jessie Buckley and Olivia Colman as the two leads are both brilliant as expected. They each bring a different style of comedy to their characters, elevating the witty dialogue superbly. They are just such great fun to watch.

Overall this film is just an absolute hoot. It's fun and quirky and boisterous and just a really good time.

STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

In the 1920's, in the little village of Littlehampton, a scandal erupts where a series of outrageous, insulting, profane letters are sent to local residents. Edith Swan (Olivia Colman), a prudish local woman, is especially shocked at the tone of the letters, along with stern head of the household , her father Edward (Timothy Spall.) She has her suspicions, in the shape of Rose (Jessie Buckley), a foul mouthed Irish lady Edith took under her wing and now regrets. Everything seems clear cut, but under the surface, a shocking truth lurks.

Director Thea Shurrock's homegrown period comedy piece has proven something of a sleeper hit, a seemingly traditional historical yarn, with a subversive twist in its tail, with its intermittent outpourings of hilariously filthy profanity, and even more unbelievably, based on a true life story. With a slew of top flight acting talent heading the bill, including current acting royalty Olivia Colman in the lead role, it definitely has loftier ambitions than just to be a one-joke comedy piece, but in spite of touching on some worthier notes, the sporadic letter sequences and the outrageous belly chuckles they provoke remain its chief selling point.

Sending up the moral pruriency of the time it's set in as it does, and with the incredulity of the plot line already having it up in arms on the back of this, at the risk of having my review rejected by IMDb, the historical accuracy of the piece feels further compounded, sadly, by the notable minority cast members in key roles, including Anjana Vasan as an Asian female police constable on the hunt for the culprit, which given the setting and the historical timeline, sadly does hinder the believability of things. It's not distracting enough to see Jonny Sweet's script touch on other worthwhile points, such as people's standing in a community affecting peoples judgment of them without proof, as well as hitting on some darker sequences in general that even out the funnier stuff.

For all its loftier praises, it's essentially a novelty film, with its laughs generated from a rather stationary source, but it still hits the nail on the head this way, and when they strike, they do provide an outrageously good chuckle. ***