You might have seen the Wickertrailer, heard the plot from your friends behind giggling hands, or experienced the collective internet reaction to a 4DX screening. We’re getting anothersexy straw man movie, when we thought such a thing was done For Good?
Based on Ursula Wills-Jones’ short story “The Wicker Husband,” the tale is what it says on the tin: a fisherwoman (Oli requests a local basket weaver (Peter Dinklage) to make her a husband to get the bitches in town (led by Elizabeth Debicki) off her goddamn back. And it works, with Alexander Skarsgård brought to life as the world’s most dashing straw man — apologies to Jonathan Bailey’s Scarecrow in Wicked
It’s a deeply silly, fairy tale concept. But what directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson have up their sleeve is a hilarious and heartfelt script, an incredibly talented cast, and magical production design that landed actual gasps (and cackles) from the BFI London Film Festival audience.
It’s an artisanal Frankenstein tale, and one that will melt that brittle basket-woven heart of yours — or simply have you thinking about Taylor Swift’s “Wood” differently.
Wicker is Frankenstein for craft lovers.
The very concept of building a life partner from things around the house has intrigued writers from Mary Shelley to that time Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s aunts played with “Man Dough.” And in Wicker, a exceptionally talented basket weaver (a positively Shakespearean Dinklage) is the one to play God.
Set in a medieval village where patriarchy is divine and marriage means literally putting a collar on the bride, Wicker follows a gleeful social outsider known as the Fisherwoman (an impeccable Colman), happily living out her days in her crumbling cottage as a spinster. Covered in the stench of her occupation, she has no desire to marry as expected. However, such independence sparks the ire of the townspeople, especially the Tailor’s Wife (a diabolical Debicki), a woman oppressed in her own man-child marriage to the Tailor (a superb Nabhaan Rizwan). To shut them all up, the fisherwoman commissions another recluse, the Basket Weaver, to literally make her a husband. One magic moment later, Fisherwoman has her Wicker Husband (a stoically sweet Skarsgård) — and the entire town can hear their marital bliss, echoing across the meadows.
It’s a sexual awakening indeed for Colman’s Fisherwoman, and one that will have you cackling with glee as she does. But their bond becomes about more than planking sessions. Though literally fabricated, Fisherwoman and her Wicker Husband’s exploration of love and intimacy feels deeply genuine, thanks to Coleman’s gleeful humour and vulnerability and Skarsgård’s awkward romanticism. And it’s all within a safe distance from fires; one of them is “very flammable,” after all.
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However, as the Wicker Husband tries to understand his “purpose” and the logic behind treating women as equal (imagine!), his charms begin to affect the townspeople. Essentially, he’s making the other men look absolutely useless.
Wicker makes a hilarious mockery of traditional gender roles.
One of the most compelling elements of Wicker, beyond its plethora of gloriously dirty jokes, frankly hilarious foley effects, and Colman’s outstanding performance is its skewering of traditional gender roles within marriage.
As the townsfolk witness these moments of sweet romance, simmering sexual chemistry, and actual friendship between the Fisherwoman and Wicker Husband, the local women have questions for their own husbands. What do you mean, this man shares the housework and fishing with his wife? What do you mean, sex can be an act of pleasure, not merely for procreation? They begin to examine their society’s gender essentialism, from marital obligations to division of labour and intimacy — and the husbands are annoyed. “All of a sudden I don’t say enough words to her!” says one. “The wives, they’re all aflutter!” says another. Here, Wicker‘s supporting cast shine in glorious deadpan, especially Ella Bruccoleri as one-liner queen the Baker’s Wife, Ben Ashenden as her husband, Baker, and Kiell Smith-Bynoe as the stubborn Innkeeper.
But while the film’s medieval innuendos are show-stoppers in their own right, Wicker‘s production design will actually cause a shortness of breath.
Wicker‘s production design team makes spicy magic happen.
It must be said: For Wicker to work, the Fisherwoman’s darling “timber knight” has to be magically hot. I don’t make the rules. It’s part of the narrative or something. Casting Alexander Skarsgård in such a role is a superb step toward achieving such sorcery (Pillion also knew what it was doing), but transforming him into a dashing man made of flexible rods is another challenge. Luckily, Wicker enlisted Wētā Workshop and visual effects supervisor Joe Dunckley to craft an otherworldly wicker suit that’s alarmingly ripped, along with facial prosthetics that trace the lines of Skarsgård’s face. You can physically see through these wicker biceps, light shining through them.
Remembering this is a raunchy fantasy comedy, the production team also doesn’t waste one opportunity to draw out the properties of a wicker person during intimate scenes. Every creak of the Wicker Husband’s basketry serves to emphasise his strength and physical materials. Foley artist and editor Adrian Medhurst and foley recordist Simon Koehn should be applauded for the wicker erection sounds that groan and strain through an early scene, one that had the LFF audience hooting.
Within this raunchy fairy tale, like all fairy tales, there are lessons hidden between the fantasy and drama. And if you can’t learn a thing or two about intimacy, romance, and love while staring at the sheer artistry of basket-woven pectorals, then I don’t know what to tell you.
Wickerwas reviewed out of BFI London Film Festival. It hits cinemas Oct. 23 in the U.S. and Oct. 30 in the UK.Recommended deals for you
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Shannon Connellan is Mashable’s Senior Editor, General Assignments, based in London. She has been Mashable’s UK Editor (and still manages the illustrious UK team) and Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives searching for Exit 8. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror, and loves to nerd outwith movie stars, filmmakers, and TV creators.
