In my book, Olivia Colman can do just about anything.
Over just the past year, she’s performed miracles in film and on television with material far beneath her powers. She’s been able to make a truly unmemorable Marvel television series (Secret Invasion) at least partially watchable. She emerged unscathed from a dreadful FX adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. She even managed to deliver a light and very funny performance in the big-screen Wonka even if her scenes felt ripped from an entirely different film.
But when she’s given brilliant material as in FX’s The Bear, she’s able to take a nearly throw-away part and deliver one of the most memorable scenes of the 2023 television season.
Shockingly, after winning an Oscar in 2018 for Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favorite, these projects were what our creative minds offered Colman. These are roles that, with the one notable exception in The Bear, fail to live up to her vast talents. We’ve seen what she can do with subpar material, and naturally we long for scripts that can match her skill. We crave more films like The Lost Daughter or Empire of Light that can at the very least try to come to her table to play.
Colman’s latest film, the “naughty” British dark comedy Wicked Little Letters, doesn’t vastly alter this regrettable recent trajectory of disappointments. It’s a pedestrian effort stuffed with “women of a certain age” spouting frequent obscenities with panache. Many will undoubtedly find this hilarious, but to me, it feels incredibly old fashioned. Colman and her The Lost Daughter counterpart Jessie Buckley give the material every ounce of life possible, but there’s no denying that the story fails to live up to their standards.
Based on an impossibly true series of events, Letters stars Colman as Edith Swan, a good Christian spinster who receives dozens of filthy, insulting, and profane letters. She assumes they originate from her younger, wild child neighbor Rose (Buckley) after their initial, improbable friendship devolves into barely masked contempt. When local police agree with Swan’s assumption, Rose is arrested and will stand trial for indecency (or something like that). But did Rose write those letters? Do we care?
The answer is, of course, a spoiler, but it’s a spoiler that fans of the actress will deeply care about. Colman takes her underwritten role and imbues it with every bit of vitality she has in her toolkit. She boasts proper English restraint, masking a deep reservoir of discontent under the domineering eye of her father (Timothy Spall), while reading the offending letters out loud. She walks through scenes with a tightly wound physicality, and that beautifully juxtaposes against Buckley’s Rose and her uninhibited boisterousness. The end of the film gives her the opportunity to let go of social and familial restraints, and we are treated to a full-bodied moment of joy as Colman’s Edith is set free.
I would have preferred an entire film focusing only on the unlikely friendship between these two women — sinner and saint who desperately desires to sin. Yet, Wicked Little Letters forces us into a thinly plotted detective / trial story populated with supporting actors cast with a modern eye that fails to align with realities of the era. Yes, it’s a true story, but I was never fully convinced that the creative team truly understood these women. Colman’s Edith comes off better than Buckley’s Rose, but not by a significant margin. Their relationship and the story have potential for days, but the script ultimately fails them by relying too heavily on the allure of a well placed “fuck” or “twat.”
Overall, Wicked Little Letters is a forgettable piece of fluff unjustly elevated by its two central performances. I’m certain Buckley and Colman had a blast filming this, but they both deserve better material. I will watch nearly anything Olivia Colman does, but it would be nice to at least like the films that surround her.
I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Wicked Little Letters opens nationwide Friday, April 5.
![2025 Oscars: Can a Late-Breaker Still Win Best Picture? [POLL]](https://www.awardsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/gladiator-350x250.jpg)
Let’s see, you know Jurassic World and Terminator Genysis, but not The Witch. Hmmm.
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Sorry, I can name tons of films from 2015 offhand:
The 8 films that are nominated, Youth, Mr Holmes, Creed, Inside Out, Carol, Steve Jobs, Infinitely Polar Bear, Our Brand is Crisis, Mississippi Grand, The Walk, Hot Tub Time Machine 2, Sicario, Trumbo, Straight Outta Compton, Son of Saul, Mustang, Krampus, Rock the Kabash, Beasts of No Nation, Star Wars the Force Awakens, Jurassic World, Terminator Genysis, Inside Out, Home, Chappie, etc
You can call me a certified 2015ologist
You’ve never heard of The Witch??? Only one of the most stunning debut films this century??? Have you heard The Beatles broke up?
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everyone’s got their own views over when someone has been famous….
But The Witch has a box office take of $25 Million, I never heard of it, but it did win a few fringe awards, evidently.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt4263482/?ref_=bo_se_r_1
That’s kind of a harsh take of Olivia’s career post Oscar win… geez.
I’m not a fan of either but even if you count those, the narrative is pretty much as follows:
2001: breakthrough performance with Mulholland Dr.
2003: delivers a second well-liked performance in a well-liked movie, gets an Oscar nomination
2005: lead of a big blockbuster that is Peter Jackson’s follow-up to The Lord of the Rings. She is extremely well-liked, the movie slightly less so, but the Academy would never go for a performance like hers. Her Oscar positioning isn’t harmed but probably isn’t helped that strongly either
2007: lead of a Cronenberg movie where Mortensen blows her off the screen
2012: another Oscar nomination in a moderately received movie
2014: a supporting role in the best picture winner and an odd SAG nomination for another people don’t seem to really like but there seems to be no “Naomi Watts is back” narrative and it all kind of fizzles out
And it feels like the movies in between these points do absolutely nothing for her. So at this point, over 20 years after she was first positioned for Oscar success, she hasn’t even been close to the Oscar conversation in a decade and it feels like her whole Oscar narrative trajectory has revolved around 6-7 movies with notable gaps in between.
but it’s also about how long they’ve been in the public eye. Ronan has been in the public eye since 2007. Anya Taylor emerged in something like 2018 with Thoroughbreds?
June Squibb is in her 70s, but she only started getting screen credits at age 50, if I’m not mistaken.
You can’t be due if the public hasn’t known you that long
Anya Taylor-Joy is two years younger than Ronan.
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wayyyy too young
I do care, and I’m hoping that Sasha cares too – despite the fact that Oppenheimer will most likely lose to American Fiction…! 🙂
Didn’t you hear? The awards have been cancelled due to…
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Personally I would vote for Naomi Watts…! 🙂
She is probably the most talented living Actress out there – with no Oscar…
Are we going to have a “Writers Guild Awards Preview, Predictions and Contest” article – in the upcoming days..? 🙂
Anya Taylor-Joy is making more interesting films than Saoirse Ronan now.
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Wait until you see Abigail. Your opinion will change.
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Michelle Williams is also overdue.
I fully understood that. I just can’t comment on that in the review because it’s a massive spoiler. It doesn’t change my opinion that it’s an underwhelming justification and overall film.
Glad you liked it though!
If so, you and Clarence missed the whole point of the film: Edith didn’t assume it was Rose, she went along with her father’s conviction that it was. She even says to Rose at the end that she wished it weren’t her—because her plan was never to accuse Rose. Lastly, the whole reason she engaged in this behavior was to channel the anger she has towards her father—that’s why she explodes into a fit of laughter at the end: she finally got to express to her father how she feels.
https://medium.com/flicks-tv-hound/15-actors-most-overdue-for-a-lead-actor-oscar-23028da73d14
I left this once on a thread that got little traffic:
OK, another list of mine. Most overdue for lead actress Oscar:
1. Glenn Close-To have that kind of streak in the 80s is something few actresses can manage, and she has followed it up with the kind of good female roles that rarely get recognized in old age
2. Annette Bening-She’s been in prestige films A LOT, and had a well-deserved 5th nomination in Nyad. Close and Bening are almost like Bradley Cooper/Leo DiCaprio and that they might give off the illusion of trying too hard to choose films based on Oscar potential at this phase.
3. Naomi Watts-I view her as on part of the Nicole Kidman/Rene Zellweger/Reese Witherspoon generation that just never got her due despite consistently being in great films
3. Sigourney Weaver-Maybe, it’s the ghettoization of her action or comedy roles, but she’s still been around for a long time
4. Amy Adams-Yes, to have 6 nominations without winning puts you at the upper echelon, but I do feel like it’s competitive at the top and while I adore her from an underdog perspective in years like Doubt or Juneburg, I do feel that Goliath Amy Adams is less appealling (like the due narrative that accompanied Vice).
5. Carey Mulligan-Saoisre Ronan was a child star who lucked into her first nomination (so I’d give her 3 noms rather than 4) which is the same as Mulligan who had a little more agency as the lead in education. The Dig and Promising Young Women are complete opposite ends of the spectrum and she can do period pieces
6. Margo Robbie-I don’t love her, but she’s creeping closer to due territory.
7. Scarlett Johansson-She’s never gone a few years without making something noteworthy. Even something minor like Joseph Gordon Levitt’s Don John or The Man Who Wasn’t There, she brings something to.
8. Saoisre Ronan-She keeps making her way into fantastic films. Counting the one she wasn’t nominated for (Grand Budapest Hotel), all her nominations have been in 5 Best Picture nominees, which bodes well for her.
9.Keira Knightley-Personally, I would have had her winning 2 Oscars already for A Dangerous Method . She can do period and she can do comedy, and is ideal for rom-com (Begin Again, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World)
10. Isabelle Hupert-The Oscars show also include international diversity as well as racial diversity, and this French star has had some major hits
11. Angela Bassett-They probably shouldn’t have given her the honorary Oscar so young (she was around 62-63 by my calculations when the Academy announced the award) and I suspect it was wanting to hedge their bets by awarding a Black actor in case the Academy didn’t nominate any. She’s a personal favorite and honorary usually doesn’t affect in-competition voting but I think she’s worth a lead statue
14. Rosamund Pike-Gone Girl was one of the most epic parts ever to lose an Oscar (or at least in the 2010s) and she is always taking prestige roles. You can see her trying to spin Oscar bait out of subpar material like Beirut.
13. Toni Collette-I get the sense she’s more likely in supporting, but she rarely goes a few years without something experimental and wild like Midsomar or I’m Thinking of Ending Things and she’s prolific
14. Michelle Pfeiffer-Here’s the thing: With women, they sometimes drop off in noticeable roles as they age. I don’t like it any more than anyone, and with Stardust, White Oleander, and Hairspray, Pfeiffer fought strong, but it just might be difficult for her to find a good script today
15. Lily Tomlin-I’m not sure how much of a glass cielling voters would consider to have a lesbian win lead actress, but she’d be that and a rare comic actress to win the Award. When she acts in Grace and Frankie or 80 For Brady, it’s kind of sad thinking she’s the only star on screen not to have won an Oscar and only got nominated once.
Personal wishlist: Elizabeth Shue, Charlotte Rampling, Kerry Washington, Keri Russell, Jenny Slate (she has headlined the films before, but her films have been lower visibility, Marcell the Shell might have broken that), Olivia Williams (AKA the other Olivia), Christina Ricci, Kelsey Asbille, Kelly Reilly, Riley Keogh