Warring neighbors that hate each other sounds like the premise of a modern-day American comedy on the political divide, but it’s actually the concept of a 1920s period film set on the English coast. Having premiered earlier this year at the Toronto International Film Festival, today Studio Canal has released the U.K. trailer for “Wicked Little Letters,” a dark comedy starring Oscar-winner Olivia Colman and Oscar nominee Jessie Buckley, who play neighbors that get on each other’s nerves in a small English town where residents start receiving anonymous, expletive-laden letters, igniting a scandal in their community (read our review).
Directed by Thea Sharrock (2016’s “Me Before You” and 2020’s “The One and Only Ivan”), the film, based on a true story, is mostly a two-hander between the two A-list Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning actors (in the case of Colman), but Timothy Spall and Anjana Vasan also appear.
Here’s the official synopsis:
A 1920s English seaside town bears witness to a dark and absurd scandal in this riotous mystery comedy. Based on a stranger-than-fiction true story, WICKED LITTLE LETTERS follows two neighbors: deeply conservative local Edith Swan (Olivia Colman) and rowdy Irish migrant Rose Gooding (Jessie Buckley). When Edith and her fellow residents begin to receive wicked letters full of unintentionally hilarious profanities, foul-mouthed Rose is charged with the crime. The anonymous letters prompt a national uproar, and a trial ensues. However, as the town’s women – led by Police Officer Gladys Moss (Anjana Vasan) – begin to investigate the crime themselves, they suspect that something is amiss and Rose may not be the culprit after all.
Watch the scandalously sweary red band trailer for “Wicked Little Letters” below. The dark comedy will be released in UK cinemas on February 23, 2024, and is “coming soon” internationally.
