Opening in theaters on October 23 is ‘Wicker,’ written and directed by Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson and starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Elizabeth Debicki, and Peter Dinklage.

Wicker

“Marriage material.”

Release Oct 23, 2026Runtime 1h 45m

Related Article: Olivia Colman Joins the Cast of ‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 6

Initial Thoughts

Based on a short story by Ursula Wills (‘The Wicker Husband’), ‘Wicker’ might be the most unusual love story you see all year. It’s beautifully shot, whimsically portrayed, and continuously amusing – but with a more bittersweet undercurrent of all-too-relevant themes of self-determination, sexual identity, and social conventions.

It never gets too heavy though, and while certain plot developments may remind you of other films, ‘Wicker’ is still a delight, bolstered by fantastic performances from Olivia Colman and a prosthetics-laden Alexander Skarsgård.

Story and Direction

In a remote village that’s clearly meant to be part of a fable – since everyone in the village is known by their job or social position, and not their name – there lives a Fisherwoman (Colman) who catches her prey in the nearby streams, then brings them into town to sell. She lives in a house outside the village, she smells like fish, and she’s rather plain and dressed in rags, so the villagers tolerate her.

Weddings are a big part of life in this village – and so is the idea that a woman is subservient to her husband, to the point that a groom doesn’t put a ring around his bride’s finger but a literal collar around her neck. When the Fisherwoman is taunted at the latest wedding over her lack of a husband, which is something she never saw the need to have, she goes to the local Basket Weaver (Dinklage) and asks him to make her one.

And so he does, in the form of tall, strapping Alexander Skarsgård, fully decked out in a magnificent practical suit and prosthetics (courtesy of Joe Dunckley and Weta Workshop) that make him appear to be made entirely out of rattan. Not only is he equipped with some solid, er, weaving in the right place (as the Fisherwoman quickly finds out to her delight), but he is entirely respectful of and devoted to his wife – in other words, the perfect husband.

If this was a conventional rom-com, the idea would be that Mr. Wicker (as he is called) is there to mold Fisherwoman into a less eccentric, less independent woman and provide her with the missing man she so desperately needs. But this is not a conventional rom-com: everything is Fisherwoman’s choice from the start, she still avoids the conventions of the village (‘We won’t need that,’ she snaps when asked at her wedding ceremony where the collar is), and they are partners and equals in every sense (okay, maybe he drives the boat a little more in bed, but that’s to her liking).

Of course, the villagers – led by the nosy, buttoned-up Tailor’s Wife (Debicki), whose marriage to her meek husband is as dull as their darkened, drab house – can’t stand any of this. Hearing Fisherwoman’s screams of pleasure at night, the wives become frustrated and horny for Mr. Wicker (‘Is someone being murdered?’ asks one newlywed, whose own husband tries to arouse her by fixing their roof). The husbands can’t stand him because he sets a standard that is impossible for them to achieve. So naturally a plot is hatched to bring the happy couple down, which takes the film’s third act into some light folk horror territory.

And we do mean ‘light’; despite some eerie imagery, ‘Wicker’ is not ‘The Wicker Man.’ This is a fable, after all. While one can sense Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson’s script laboring a bit to stretch the story to feature length, there is always enough happening on screen that the film’s pace only goes into a lull here and there. Lol Crawley’s (‘The Brutalist’) cinematography is magnificent and painterly, giving the entire film a pastoral, natural look, while the production design by Renátó Cseh (‘Poor Things’) contrasts the simple purity of Fisherwoman and Wicker’s life together with the grubby reality of the village, as do the costumes by András Dániel Tóth and Attila Godena-Juhász. ‘Wicker’ immerses you in its world from the first moment, creating a timeless setting for its timely themes.

Cast and Performances

All the lovely designs and camerawork in the world would mean nothing without a spectacular cast, and ‘Wicker’ delivers in that department as well. Olivia Colman is at a stage where she has no more f**ks to give, moving from broad farce like ‘The Roses’ to a nuanced, haunting, yet funny performance like the one she gives here. She is both full of abandon and also pain – as we see when the villagers finally wear her down – yet her Fisherwoman is also capable of opening her heart. It’s a brilliant performance.

She’s ably supported by Skarsgård, who projects tenderness, patience, and a kind of sweet naivete underneath his wicker carapace. Also outstanding is Dinklage, as an almost Shakespearean character (he gives two soliloquies, each before an act of creation) who takes a while to realize the gravity of what he is enabling. Debicki is also perfect as a cruel, frustrated, wily woman who senses that she’s losing control of the narrative, while the rest of the village is filled out with a delightful gallery of quirky, distinctive inhabitants.

Final Thoughts

In some ways reminiscent of ‘Edward Scissorhands,’ another story of an artificial being who demonstrates more soul than the humans around him, ‘Wicker’ follows some of the traditional beats of a romantic comedy wrapped in a fantasy. But its bucolic atmosphere and distinctive characters set it apart, and its themes are more adult and more trenchantly observed.

The movie is also unabashedly horny, as are the villagers, and its moments of raunch also set it apart from something as shallow as ‘One Night Only.’ Even with a central character made of rattan, ‘Wicker’ is a movie full of heart and hot blood.

‘Wicker’ receives a score of 85 out of 100.

What is the plot of ‘Wicker’?

On the outskirts of a village by the sea lives a Fisherwoman who’s smelly, single and perpetually ridiculed. One day, fed up with her stuffy, small-minded neighbors, she commissions herself a husband to be made from wicker. In an otherwise conservative town, this unconventional romance sparks outrage, jealousy and chaos.

Who is in the cast of ‘Wicker’?

List of Movies and TV Shows featuring Olivia Colman:

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