A bit of mystery and a bit of comedy, Wickedness at Home wittily tells an event that actually happened in a small town in Sussex in the 1920s, but which could also happen today. Protagonists and antagonists are Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley. Carola Proto’s review.
If we consider Mischief at home only as a whodunit style The lady disappears Of Alfred Hitchcock or yellow of Agatha Christie with protagonist Miss Marple, we risk not correctly evaluating a film that contains a mystery, but leaves us guessing right from the start, and not due to an oversight, the identity of the culprit, who in this case writes anonymous letters full of insults. First he sends them to a devoted spinster and then to the entire town of Littlehampton, Sussex, where bigotry reigns supreme, freedom of speech is limited and society relegates members of the fairer sex to a position of subservience.
It is useless to question the truth of the characters they populate Mischief at home and on the chain of events, since the film of Thea Sharrock it is inspired by true events that happened about a century ago. In 1922, a small conservative, puritanical and misogynistic community on the south coast of England was effectively shocked by a plethora of missives containing the most disparate swear words, and the alleged culprit was dragged to court, underlining the echo of the unfortunate scandal. Luckily for us, the screenwriter Johnny Sweet he thought of turning the episode into a comedy that sometimes gives way to bitterness, for example in the character and acting of Olivia Colmanwhose face with its ever-changing expression at a certain point transforms into a battlefield.
The Oscar-winning actress plays Edith Swan, the recipient of the letters, who lives with a controlling father and a mother who is prone to fainting. She is an impossible character to hate, perhaps for the way in which she accepts her role as a submissive daughter and model Christian, and also for the flashes of repressed anger that we see flashing in her gaze and which amuse us so much. her.
The other protagonist is Jessie Buckley, who instead plays an Irish woman who lost her husband during the First World War and moved to Littlehampton with her daughter. Her name is Rosedrinks and curses like the rudest of men and, It goes without sayingbecomes the scapegoat of the coastal city, the person out of the chorus who must be silenced to avoid teaching other women to corner their fathers, brothers and husbands.
Jessie Buckley he infuses his energy into the character of Roseand the director immediately highlights a profound difference between her and Edithand it is no coincidence that the camera moves while framing Rosealmost always surrounded by a clear light, and then becoming immobile in front of Edithwho receives blows from the terrible parent who considers her incapable of even understanding his own tastes. Timothy Spall it makes you mean and mean Edward Swaneven if it was the mentality of the time and the death of two sons in the war that made him so-so.
Then there is a third woman, and she would be the agent Gladys (Anjana Vasan), who is also the first female policeman in Sussex and who, due to the dangers of her job, will not be able to marry and have children. She also tries to fight against discrimination in her own way.
The three main characters look alike and their stories are empowerment feminine, chronicles of inner journeys to gain acceptance of others and in particular of oneself. What if Edith fight against his family and Rose against the rules of a rigid and impenetrable social milieu, Gladys, who has an incredible nose, must agree to violate the rules to solve a decidedly complicated case in his own way. In this context Rose she is no less fearful than Gladys and of Edith, who is probably the bravest of the three, but she also suffers from the judgment of others, and if in some ways she is a tomboy, in her love for her daughter she shows a completely maternal sweetness. Then there are the old ladies from the neighborhood, who have been entrusted to actresses that British cinema goers know well, demonstrating the fact that not only Mike Leigh takes the utmost care in choosing each individual performer.
The last essential character of Mischief at homewhich does justice to the complexity of the English language and also to the country’s sense of humor Winston Churchill And David Beckham It’s bad language. The foul language in the letters is amazing because it is vintage, as it is linked to another era, and even creative, so creative that it delights the viewer and pushes a critic to define it as “delightfully vulgar”. And yet even here the laughter is confused with a satanic grin, because the insult that in the film arrives by letter, in our present is not anonymous and passes through social media, and if an anonymous message could and can remain a private matter, today a photograph or video that one would like to keep secret often becomes public knowledge and is a much worse weapon than the evils revealed in the film.
It is in perfect balance between sentiment and irony Mischief at home, and lies between moral fable and satire. Don’t call it a little film, please, because in its simplicity it gets exactly where it wanted to go, giving a jab at contemporary haters and the other at patriarchy, a social system which, alas, subtly continues to exist even in the most democratic countries.
