Wicked Little Letters | 2023 | R | – 4.4.10

Why is “Wicked Little Letters” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout and sexual material.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes the sounds of a man and a woman having sex, partial non-sexual nudity, many sexual references, a woman head-butting a man, a woman hitting another woman in the head with a shovel, a woman collapsing and dying, many arguments, many scenes of people reading threatening letters that include obscene language including once in a courtroom, several threats of violence, a few arrests, discussions of death in war, and at least 72 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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In a post WWI English town, denizens start receiving anonymous letters full of profane invective, and one woman (Olivia Colman) seems specially targeted. When she tells the police that she suspects her young unconventional neighbor (Jessie Buckley), who is promptly arrested, the town’s only female officer (Anjana Vasan) suspects that something is amiss and investigates. Also with Timothy Spall, Jason Watkins, Alisha Weir, Joanna Scanlan, Hugh Skinner, Eileen Atkins, Lolly Adefope, Gemma Jones, Tim Key, Malachi Kirby and Paul Chahidi. Directed by Thea Sharrock. [Running Time: 1:40]

Wicked Little Letters SEX/NUDITY 4

 – We hear moaning and rhythmic thumping from the other side of a wall and three people try to block the sound by covering their ears.
► A woman is described as being “enthusiastic in that general area of expertise,” referring to sexual activity. A woman tells another woman that she will find her a man that will wake her with a fright (referring to the size of his genitals). People talk about a child being born out of wedlock.
► Police come to a woman’s door to arrest her, she runs out the back door and lifts her dress to reveal her bare buttocks and legs as she runs away. A woman lies in a tub of water and we see her bare shoulders and legs to the upper thighs as a man massages her feet as they talk. A woman wears a low-cut top that reveals cleavage in a few scenes. A woman is shown sleeping while seated in an outhouse and a man opens the door (she has her pants down and her bare thighs are seen as she and the man both yell). A man complains about a woman walking around barefoot.

Wicked Little Letters VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A woman reads a letter, becomes upset, collapses on a table and we see her covered by a sheet later as her adult daughter identifies the dead body for the police.
► A woman hits another woman in the head with a shovel and she falls to the ground dazed (we do not see blood). A man confronts a woman and she moves closer to him as she insults him; another man intervenes and insults her and she head-butts him causing him to stumble backward. A woman is escorted into a prison yard and we see a few women holding infants while men on the other side of a fence shove each other and yell until they are separated by officers. Two men argue and struggle. A young girl breaks a guitar on the ground and yells at her mother, calling her names before running away.
► A woman holds a dart and prepares to throw it at a man (she seems inebriated); she throws it after telling him she’s aiming for his groin, and it lodges in an apple in his very thick hair (leaving no visible injury). A man throws his pipe across a room toward his adult daughter and yells at her. A woman is placed in handcuffs and taken to a cell where we see her lying on a hard surface. A woman threatens another woman in a few scenes. A woman collapses during a courtroom trial.
► People are gathered at a funeral. A woman talks about someone drowning. A man says that his sons are still in France and that they died in the war. People talk about a woman losing custody of her daughter and spending time in prison doing hard labor. A character tells a woman, “Thank God your father got shot.” A woman lunges toward another woman and says, “Everyone is going to know what I know.”
► The words “Die Slut” are painted on the front door of a woman’s house. People talk about writing threatening letters is an imprisonable offense. A woman reads letters in several scenes and becomes upset by their language. We hear that a woman’s husband died in war. A woman makes numerous remarks about the suffering of Jesus and the benefits of suffering. A woman jokingly threatens her young daughter in several scenes and once tells her “I’ll slit you from ear to ear” if she plays the guitar. A man enters a police station and demands “one of them” pointing past the female officer that is addressing him to the male officers standing behind her. A police officer identifies herself as “woman officer Moss.” A woman is told that a woman officer is present during a questioning because of possible “hysteria and general tears.” A woman is reprimanded by her boss in a few scenes. A man tells his adult daughter, “Remember your place.” A woman describes her own hygiene habits as “criminal.” A woman says that a pig is dying from pig rot.
► Police come to a woman’s door to arrest her, she runs out the back door (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details) and they chase her; they hold her arms and prepare to handcuff her later. A man yells at and orders his adult daughter to do things including writing scripture passages 200 times and she complies sheepishly in numerous scenes. A woman yells and pulls on a jail cell door. A Child Protective Services officer arrives at a woman’s door saying that they received a complaint. A woman spills a cup of tea on a man and he yells and leaves the room.
► A woman charges to the outhouse bumping into a woman holding a cleaning brush that touches her face and when the first woman closes the door, we hear splatters and flatulence. A woman finds a clump of hair in a bathing tub and makes a face when removing it. A woman scrubs a floor feverishly feeling guilty about not keeping the house clean for her daughter. A man throws a dish of food in the garbage after tasting it and leaves the house. A woman flatulates.

Wicked Little Letters LANGUAGE 10

 – At least 72 F-words and its derivatives, 14 sexual references, 11 scatological terms, 24 anatomical terms, 14 mild obscenities, name-calling (wicked, abuse, old, sad, old strumpet, prideful, joke, ugly old [scatological term deleted], old stinker, smarmy, daft, stupid, big stinker, salty old sod, rude, hostile, daft, silly, bally tepid, lying [sexual reference deleted], evil, freak, serial liar, drunks and queers, saucy [mild obscenity deleted], poison pen lady, wench, thorn, feck, shriveled old [anatomical term deleted], gobshite, Nancy boy, bastard, monster, spider, spinster, retched, sucker, tart, gloating air, pale, mangy, pitiful, heinous, curses like a fish, stinking [mild obscenity deleted], smelly [mild obscenity deleted], foxy [anatomical term deleted]), exclamations (bloody, hurly baloo), 18 religious exclamations (e.g. Jesus, oh God, oh Jesus, by God, thank God your father got shot, as sure as God made gooseberries, good God, Christ, what on God’s Earth, holy heavens, God travels through the just). | profanity glossary |

Wicked Little Letters SUBSTANCE USE

 – Many men and a woman are shown drinking beer in a pub and some appear inebriated, a woman drinks from a flask, a woman carries a bottle of liquor into a ladies’ club and puts it on the table among a group of women playing cards, we hear that a character “boozes, then curses.” A man smokes a pipe, a man and a woman smoke cigarettes, a woman smokes a cigarette while in a bathtub, a woman smokes cigarettes in a prison cell, and a woman smokes a cigarette on a bus.

Wicked Little Letters DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Piety, controlling parents, secrets, suffering, misogyny, sexism, small towns, morality, decorum, Suffragette Movement, martyrdom, virtue, libel, family, war and death, casting blame.

Wicked Little Letters MESSAGE

 – Profanity can be very liberating.