Writing and directing duo Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson enlist an impressive collection of award-winning talent for Wicker, Black Bear Pictures’ adaptation of Ursula Wills’ acclaimed short story The Wicker Husband.
Oscar winner Olivia Colman stars as a nameless fisherwoman who has spent years as the target of jokes in her small medieval farming town. Comfortable in her own skin and uninterested in conforming to the town’s ideas about marriage, she mostly wants to be left alone. Eventually, however, the constant ridicule takes its toll, and she approaches the local basket maker (Peter Dinklage) with an unusual request: build her a husband.
To everyone’s surprise, the Wicker Husband (Alexander Skarsgård) comes to life—and turns out to be more spectacular than she could have imagined. He is loyal, attentive, soulful and, yes, more than capable in the bedroom. Naturally, his devotion awakens something in the fisherwoman while creating jealousy among the town’s other wives, particularly the tailor’s wife (Elizabeth Debicki) and her naïve younger sister. Soon, the town’s obsession with this unconventional marriage threatens the very fabric of village life.
The creative team has some serious tools at its disposal, and Fischer and Wilson know how to use them. Colman is perfectly cast as an everywoman balancing comedy, loneliness and years of buried hurt. She makes the fisherwoman comfortable with who she is while still allowing us to see the void in her heart. Watching Colman slowly open this character up is a masterclass in making seemingly small emotional moments matter.
Skarsgård, meanwhile, brings plenty of alpha sex appeal to the Wicker Husband but wisely doesn’t stop there. His devotion to his wife gives the character genuine sweetness, while the script avoids turning him into some flawless fantasy man. Despite being constructed as someone’s ideal partner, he develops insecurities and complications of his own.
Debicki initially plays the tailor’s wife like the village’s resident Karen—judgmental, nosy and far too invested in another woman’s business. Yet there is more underneath that attitude. As the film progresses, her resentment begins to reveal dissatisfaction within her own life. Sometimes the people who appear to have everything are carrying the most pain, and Debicki handles that realization particularly well.
Dinklage also brings his usual gravitas to the basket maker. The role could have easily become nothing more than a quirky character responsible for setting the plot in motion, but Dinklage gives him warmth and loyalty that make his relationship with the fisherwoman feel genuine.
I went into “Wicker” completely unfamiliar with the source material, which allowed the film to surprise me. More importantly, I’m curious to see how audiences respond because this isn’t really the raunchy sex comedy the trailers appear to be selling. Yes, there is bawdy humor, sexual energy and plenty of absurdity, but Fischer and Wilson are after something more sincere.
At its heart, “Wicker” is an unusual love story about jealousy, acceptance and letting people define happiness for themselves. The fisherwoman finds something that brings joy into her life, yet everyone around her feels entitled to judge it, question it or take a piece of it for themselves.
Sometimes somebody else’s happiness doesn’t require our understanding or approval. It just requires us to leave them alone.
Final Grade : B
“Wicker” opens in theaters Thursday, October 22nd.
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