Director: Thea Sharrock

Stars: Jessie Buckley, Olivia Colman, Anjana Vasan, Timothy Spall, Gemma Jones

A top-flight cast are wasted in this misfiring period Britpic, based on the true story of a 20s coastal town scandalised by an obscene letter campaign conducted by a mystery writer.

The strait-laced and pious Edith (Colman) lives with her spiteful father (Spall, wasted) and mother (Jones) in Littlehampton. Recently moved in next door is Rose (Buckley), a spirited Irish single mother with a young daughter and a live-in boyfriend. Rose's love of drinking and swearing make the scandal of the town. Edith, however, admires Rose's fearless free-spiritedness and, despite her father's disproval, the two become unlikely friends.

Then Edith starts receiving obscene letters and the finger points to her neighbour. Plucky WPC Gladys Moss (Vasan) believes there is more to the affair than meets the eye and launches her own unofficial investigation, all the while being taunted by her sexist male colleagues.

Colman, Buckley and Vasan struggle valiantly with an inert, laughter-free script, that relies on the well-worn supposed novelty of upstanding English types swearing, while Isabel Waller-Bridges whimsical score insists this is all jolly good fun despite all evidence to the contrary. There's potentially interesting subject matter here, about female solidarity, and Edith's knotty relationship with her father, but the writers fail to rise to the challenge.

Wicked Little Letters is out 23rd February.

David Willoughby

Follow David on Twitter @DWill_Crackfilm