WICKER
(directors/writers: Eleanor Wilson, Alex Huston Fischer; screenwriter: based on the short story “The Wicker Husband” by Ursual Wills; cinematographer: Lol Crowley; editor: Sofi Marshall; music: Anna Meredith; cast: Olivia Colman (The Fisherwoman), Alexander Skarsgård (The Wicker Husband), Peter Dinklage (Basketmaker), Elizabeth Debicki (Tailor’s Wife), Marli Siu (The Basket Weaver’s Sister), Nabhaan Rizwan (The Tailor), Richard E. Grant (The Village Doctor); Runtime: 105; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Ed Sinclair, Tom Carver, Justin Lothrop, Brad Zimmerman, Lia Buman, Ryan Heller, Olivia Colman, Brent Stiefel, David Michod, Tim Headington, Michael Bloom, Andrea Cornwell, Oliver Kassman; Topic Studios; 2026)
“Couldn’t warm up to its surreal story.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Co-directors and co-writers Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer (“Save Yourselves!”) are co-directors and co-writers of this fantasy supernatural fable about a smelly outcast fisherwoman (Olivia Colman), set in a medieval coastal English village, who can’t fit into society. The Fisherwoman gets an ideal husband made out of wicker (Alexander Skarsgård) when she commissions the basket-weaver (Peter Dinklage) to do it, after being mocked for being a loser by the tailor’s spiteful wife (Elizabeth Debicki), one of the town’s leading citizens.
The creative film has good performances, especially by Colman. It’s based on the short story “The Wicker Husband” by Ursual Wills.
It hangs in there with its cleverness and the effectiveness of its off-beat folklore story, but brings up too many bawdy things that are not funny. Also, its pacing drags and it becomes tonally uneven trying to blend a grown-up fable story with a moralistic story about what happens to those who live outside societal rules. It tells how the outsider’s happiness brings out the jealousy of others, as she wows the locals with her devoted taciturn hubby who is not only good in the sack but knows how to keep her happy by his devotion to her.
The cameo by Richard E. Grant, as the flaky and incompetent village doctor, provided some needed laughs.
There’s some oomph missing to this mostly agreeable pic, as I couldn’t warm up to its surreal story.
It played at the Sundance Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 4/9/2026 GRADE: B-
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