Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård Ignite a Surprising Spark in This Absurd Fantasy Film — Review

In the quaint storybook village of Wicker, everyone has a role. The tailor makes clothes, the baker bakes bread, the bottle cleaner cleans bottles. Or, I suppose, the better way to say it is, every man has a role. Every woman is only identified by her relationship to the men in her life. The doctor's daughter becomes the tailor's wife, and while the husbands, fathers, and brothers have duties and obligations, the women simply exist in the orbit of men. That's the case for everyone except the Fisherwoman, played by Olivia Colman. When a series of events leads the lonely Fisherwoman to request the Basket Weaver (Peter Dinklage) make her a husband, the result is a man made completely out of willow branches: the Wicker Husband (Alexander Skarsgård).

Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson's romantic fantasy film is a delightful and silly tale that masquerades as a fable. Beneath the surface of its folklore-esque concept, Wicker is more an exploration of human connection, a criticism of the patriarchy, and a fun exploration of just how far one ridiculous concept can be taken.

What Is 'Wicker' About?

Wicker is based on a short story by Ursula Wills-Jones titled "The Wicker Husband," and in the film, it follows the Fisherwoman closely as she realizes her quiet and isolated life needs changing. While everyone in her village has their role, as a single woman, she is an outcast. She spends her days catching fish, cleaning them, gutting them, and then selling them in town to her ungrateful community. When she is publicly mocked by the townspeople, especially the Tailor's Wife (Elizabeth Debicki), the Fisherwoman finally decides to take her life into her own hands.

Approaching the whimsical Basket Weaver, she requests that he build her a husband. Then, after a month, a man made of wicker arrives at her doorstep. The two hit it off immediately, spending their days together and their nights having sex so vigorous it repeatedly breaks their bed. And as the women of the village realize that the Wicker Husband is far more preferable to their own husbands, jealousy and envy stir. The Fisherwoman finds true happiness with her Wicker Husband in a way she has never experienced. Meanwhile, those who have spent their lives thinking they're at the top of the social hierarchy begin to realize the downside of their conformist life.

'Wicker' Leaves Too Much of the Story Behind, and Gives Too Much Away

The main issue with Wicker is the fact that it wants to be a fable, but it can't decide between the charming vagueness of a true fable and a deeper story that delves into the human condition. At first, the story simply seems to be one about acceptance. The Fisherwoman and her Wicker Husband are both outcasts; she as an outsider who refuses to conform to the expectations of her community, and he as a literal being made of branches. Their love allows them to find happiness when so many people around them are miserable.

However, when you dig a little deeper, it's about more than just acceptance. Wicker dabbles with the grander concepts of societal pressure while making satirical commentary about the patriarchal system. Colman is at her most interesting not when she's playing off of Skarsgård, but when she's facing off against Debicki. To the town, the Tailor's Wife is a veritable queen bee. She's beautiful, comes from a good family, and is married to a respectable tailor. She's a mother and has been given a position of respect in the community. However, beneath her beautiful exterior is a petty and mean-spirited woman that no one but the Fisherwoman is willing to call out.

When the two spar verbally, the complexities of both women come to the forefront. The Fisherwoman's typical cool exterior cracks, and the Tailor's Wife's purported happiness doesn't seem so happy. The pity is that we don't get enough of these scenes between Debicki and Colman. Hints of their past growing up together suggest a deeper relationship, and the conclusion of the story reveals something telling about the Tailor's Wife. However, the film seems uninterested in exploring this. It's a shame, because while the Fisherwoman and the Wicker Husband's relationship is sweet and loving, it's not nearly as nuanced or compelling as the complexity of the bond between these two women. The surface-level exploration of character is evident all through the film, but it's exemplified most in the Tailor's Wife and the Fisherwoman.

Alexander Skarsgård Gives a Lively Performance as a Wicker Man

You might think that portraying a man made of wicker might literally and metaphorically make the character quite wooden, but Skarsgård is the stand-out performance of the film. Appearing literally out of thin air, his straightforward and blunt approach to Colman's Fisherwoman is what makes him so charming to watch. He plays well off of not only the Fisherwoman, but also off all the townspeople. Although they look at him like he's an oddity, he regards them fairly and, as a result, makes them reconsider themselves after his assessment.

The film also excels at making Skarsgård surprisingly believable as a wicker man. The effects are flawless, with the wicker shaped to mimic the muscles and structure of a man and thinner, sparse branches that fill out his hair and beard. And even through all of that and the Wicker Husband's natural monotone speech pattern, Skarsgård manages to make the character surprisingly emotional. Combining that thoughtfulness along with the physical humor of his voracious sexual appetite, Wicker succeeds at making the Wicker Husband one of the most captivating and amusing parts of the film.

'Wicker' Is Flawed, but Still a Fun Romp for Lovers of Fantasy Romance

Coming in at 105 minutes, the problem with Wicker is ultimately that it's too long for a fable but too short to tell the story it wants to tell. There's a gross under-use of Peter Dinklage, who plays the eccentric but genius Basket Weaver. He is yet another character who could have played a wonderful foil to the Fisherwoman, but simply exists more as a utility character to create the Wicker Husband. The magic behind how the Wicker Husband is created is both unexplored and overly explained, and while the former might be an intentional decision, the latter both weakens the film and oversimplifies the concept to the point of spoon-feeding the audience the point of the whole story.

However, that being said, Wicker is still an immensely entertaining watch. The characters are fairly cookie-cutter, but the folk nature of the film doesn't make that a problem. Instead, its willingness to lean into the medieval archetypes and the bawdy humor of the time makes it unique. Without looking too closely, Wicker is a fun and quirky story about love and overcoming loneliness, and for some, that will be enough to crown the film as a success.

Wicker premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.