Wicker Review: Olivia Colman And Alexander Skarsgård Make Marriage A Wooden Affair

Title: Wicker

Directors: Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer

Cast: Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgard, Elizabeth Debicki

Where: In Theatres

Rating: 3 Stars



Review

Apparently, the secret to a happy marriage is to skip the dating apps and commission a husband from a basket weaver. Directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer’s Wicker is a bawdy fantasy comedy that turns this absurd premise into a pointed satire on patriarchy, sexual dissatisfaction and the low expectations attached to marriage.

Olivia Colman plays a solitary Fisherwoman whose unkempt appearance and fishy odour make her a village outcast. In a society where a woman’s standing depends on marriage, she approaches the enigmatic Basket Weaver (Peter Dinklage) and asks him to fashion a husband from wicker. Alexander Skarsgård’s creation appears: handsome, attentive, sexually generous and competent at domestic life. For the village’s husbands, this walking rebuke to mediocrity proves an uncomfortable presence.

As the unlikely couple find happiness, the villagers’ frustrations surface. Some lack affection, others struggle with intimacy, while women confined to decorative or domestic roles begin questioning the arrangements they have accepted. The film’s sharpest joke is that its revolutionary husband merely treats his wife as an equal.

Yet an ingenious premise cannot sustain every scene. The story loses momentum in places, and jealousy and suspicion provide familiar fuel for the romantic conflict. More significantly, the question of whether a husband fashioned to love someone can exercise free will deserves deeper scrutiny. The screenplay offers a convenient answer to a morally thorny question, leaving its idea insufficiently explored.

Actors’ Performance

Colman gives the Fisherwoman a persuasive mix of prickliness, loneliness and tentative vulnerability. Skarsgård makes his improbable character tender rather than merely a visual gag, lending the romance warmth. Their chemistry anchors the film emotionally. Dinklage brings sly wit to the Basket Weaver, while Elizabeth Debicki conveys the unease of a woman whose privileged position begins to look less enviable. Richard E. Grant adds comic colour as the inept village doctor, and the supporting cast gives the community its assortment of marital misfits.

Music and Aesthetics

Lol Crawley’s cinematography, Renátó Cseh’s production design and costumes conjure a grubby, textured storybook world. Wētā Workshop’s wicker creation balances the ridiculous with the convincing, while Anna Meredith’s score sustains the mischievous mood. The craftsmanship occasionally outshines the storytelling.

FPJ Verdict

Wicker has more wit than wisdom, and enough of both to make its eccentricity worthwhile. Its wooden husband may be a fantasy; the standards he exposes are depressingly real.