Women Behaving Badly? "Wicked Little Letters" and "Thelma"

Summer is officially upon us, and it’s the perfect season for a solid middle of the road movie. You know the type- one that pulls a comfortable 3 or 3 ½ stars out of five. Something entertaining and briskly paced with easily digestible themes. In your mind you may be rolling your eyes, but give these two films a watch, and then try to tell me that you didn’t have a good time.

Wicked Little Letters

Directed by Thea Sharrock, Written by Jonny Sweet

Now available for rent, this jaunty dark comedy should be hitting streaming services soon. I have a fraught relationship with movies based on historical events, especially events that center around women. In an attempt to make the story more appealing to modern audiences, many of these films depict their characters as unrealistically modern, this film included. It’s a disservice to the actual women who used the only tools available to them (weak though they may appear to us now) to effect real change- often at the cost of their own safety. However, this film skirts that issue with a clever rephrasing of the traditional opening line. “This is more true than you think,” meaning that while most of the details have been changed, the social forces keeping the mostly fictional women of Littlehampton down are as true today as they were in the 1920s. The expectation that women will be caretakers to aging parents, that they will not perform well in positions of authority, and that outward appearances indicate inward character are tired old tropes that are trampled underfoot as the women of a small British town attempt to solve the mystery of who is sending profanity laden letters to the devout Edith Swan.

Olivia Colman as Edith Swan, Jessie Buckley as Rose Gooding, and Anjana Vasan as Gladys Moss. Courtesy of Sony Pictures.

The culprit is revealed about halfway through, and the rest of the film involves catching them in the act, so if you want to avoid spoilers don’t go looking for details about the real case ahead of time. Very little of the movie aligns with real life anyway. Aside from Edith Swan, played by Olivia Colman, the cast also includes Rose Gooding, an Irish single mother played by Jessie Buckley, and Woman Police Constable (WPC) Gladys Moss, played by Anjana Vasan. All three are attempting to maintain an appearance of acceptable womanhood in a society that demands they stay tightly within certain roles- devoted daughter, grieving widow, and model minority. All three must contend with the consequences of revealing their hidden selves by the end of the movie.

The script sometimes tries a little too hard to align the identity struggles of historic and modern women. For example, WPC Moss is an almost completely made up character borrowing only the name of a real pioneering policewoman. However, she is also the most entertaining of the three, and since this isn’t really about history, the movie can be forgiven for its good intentions of wanting more diversity in the cast. Olivia Colman brings her A-game as always, and everyone seems to be having such giddy fun with their scheme to catch the criminal you can’t help but go along with it.

This is a dark comedy so there are some harrowing truths revealed on screen about what is really going on in these women’s lives, and of course there is copious extremely foul language in the infamous letters. Wicked Little Letters is not all rainbows and women’s liberation, but if you watch the preview and it seems like your cup of tea you won’t be disappointed.

Thelma

Directed and Written by Josh Margolin

Savor this movie while you can. We are fast approaching a time when the idea of an elderly person not understanding computers will be a little ludicrous. Folks who are in their 90s today would have retired in the 1990s, well after computers and the internet were introduced to workplaces and homes. It’s implied that the titular 94 year old Thelma might have been a home-maker so perhaps that explains some of her unfamiliarity with modern technology, but that doesn’t explain some of the other bizarre leaps of logic in this film. But I nitpick. This is a movie that makes little sense, but it’s a whole lot of fun to watch June Squibb and the late Richard Roundtree play a pair of seniors out for (mostly) non-violent vengeance. After Thelma falls victim to a phone scam she can feel her independence being slowly taken away from her, so she embarks on a quest to recover her money and her dignity.

Richard Roundtree and June Squibb are about to cause some chaos in “Thelma.” Courtesy of Sundance Institute and Magnolia Pictures.

While Thelma is bafflingly inept with her computer, she is very good at using senior care aids to her advantage, such as her Bluetooth compatible hearing aids, a motorized scooter that she commandeers, and her “find my grandma” enabled health monitoring device. The film is full of Mission Impossible style action movie references alongside the senior shenanigans. This is Margolin’s directorial debut, and he proves himself capable of telling a reasonably complex narrative with relatable, compelling characters. Even though I was not especially close to my grandparents, this film still brought back some fun memories.

Thelma has a kindred spirit in her 20 something year old grandson, Daniel (Fred Hechinger). They both sense, on some level, that the world doesn’t expect much of them. The emotional arc of the movie involves them coming to terms with what must be done to move forward. Daniel must learn to advocate for himself, and Thelma must learn to accept help when needed and seek out companionship beyond Daniel. There are some well-earned tender moments when Thelma encounters an old friend in much worse shape than she, and when she realizes that most of the friends that she’s lost touch with have died.

It’s a shame that this is being marketed as an indie movie, because the vibe is very mainstream. The unusually large crowd that I saw this film with LOVED it. They laughed at every punch line and whooped as Squibb executed her senior-style action moves. This would be a great family film except for a single incongruous F-bomb. The comedy mostly sticks with the “laughing with you” than the “laughing at you” variety. In short, it’s classic silly summer comedy with broad audience appeal, the likes of which haven’t been seen in theaters in a long time.

The thing that really makes Thelma stand out is the relationship between Thelma and Daniel. It’s rare to see an adult grandchild and their grandparent depicted with such warmth on screen. Be sure to stay through the first part of the credits because there’s a short clip that reveals the inspiration for this movie. A real person (Margolin’s grandmother?) repeating some of the final lines of the film in a candid moment. Time catches up to us all, but Thelma would like to remind us that every phase of life brings new experiences to enjoy.