1 of 5 | Olivia Colman stars in “Wicker,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Lol Crawley courtesy of Sundance Institute
PARK CITY, UTAH Feb. 1 (UPI) — Wicker, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, is a fairy tale for adults. It captures the wonder and fantasy but the moral bite is a bit more incisive.
A single fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) asks the local basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) to make her a husband. The Wicker Husband (Alexander Skarsgård) arrives.
The Fisherwoman and Wicker Husband enjoy a torrid love affair. Both are happy in the relationship but acclimating him to the village is where the fable comes in.
The Wicker Husband speaks simply about his life with the Fisherwoman. Describing how he must fix the bed daily is funny because the audience saw they break it whenever they make love.
He doesn’t quite understand the domestic complaints of local husbands, nor the desire he provokes in their wives. This incurs the ire of one wife (Elizabeth Debicki) who spreads rumors to sow distrust in the Fisherwoman.
The kid-friendly version of this would simply say, “Don’t believe rumors.” The grown-up version goes a little bit deeper.
The village has a system where women are married off. They seem to have weddings weekly and in case the patriarchy wasn’t clear, the ceremony involves putting a metal collar on the bride.
Fisherwoman being happy with a nonhuman spouse threatens this society. If women don’t need the paradigm, that makes the men impotent and the women who bought into it already trapped.
This parable, adapted from Ursula Wills’ short story The Wicker Husband by writer/directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, relates to modern life too. Now it’s just social media and marketing selling people social paradigms they don’t need.
Fortunately, like the best fables, the basketmaker does teach the village a lesson they deserve for all their sins.
Weta Workshop designed the Wicker Husband and it is their most original creature, having brought classics like King Kong, Planet of the Apes and Lord of the Rings to life. He is still built like Skarsgård but covered in fully woven wicker.
It is easy to see how he’s as satisfying, or more so, than a human man as long as one doesn’t think about splinters. The movie never addresses that question. Weta also designed an even more glorious wicker creature that shall not be spoiled.
Fables use fantasy to teach readers and viewers lessons relatable to life in any era. Adding the sex and social paradigms allows Wicker to speak to an even broader audience.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
