Courtney Howard // Film Critic
WICKER
Rated R, 1 hour and 45 minutes
Directed by: Alex Huston Fischer, Eleanor Wilson
Starring: Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Elizabeth Debicki, Peter Dinklage, Ella Bruccoleri, Ben Ashenden, Richard E. Grant
A lot has already been made of WICKER’s kinky, kooky charm. Premiering at Sundance earlier this year, the period-set comedy about an outcast fisherwoman who marries a sexy, sentient wicker man garnered praise by an elite group of festival-goers, whose words of praise helped to jump start the murmurs. The ensuing ad campaign – set off by a racy, suggestive trailer – had tongues wagging and horny audiences drooling over shots of a tightly woven wicker torso, star Olivia Colman’s moans of ecstasy and other erotic, back-breaking rumpus. Yet writers-directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer have made this story much more than the disposable sex comedy fodder advertised, instilling their undeniably witty fable with provocative themes about love, female agency, free will, identity, jealousy and inequality.
The Fisherwoman (Colman) is the village spinster, resigned to living alone. She doesn’t depend on human companionship as her days are filled with her solitary work gathering fish to sell at her local market and her evenings are used for doing chores around her cozy, remotely-located home. However, after decades of rude taunts lobbed at her by the male villagers over her homely outward appearance and the cold cruelty expressed by their two-faced wives, she becomes fed up and begins to ponder her loneliness.
Having seen The Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) create magically enchanted goods, Fisherwoman comes a-calling, knocking on his workshop door with a special request to make her a husband. A curious proposition indeed, but a task he’s willing and able to tackle utilizing his special set of skills. And, as promised, exactly a month later, Mr. Wicker (Alexander Skarsgård) shows up to whisk her off her feet. Their romantic bond is awkward, yet immediate and draws the attention of many bitter, snipping villagers – one of whom is The Tailor’s Wife/ Doctor’s Daughter (Elizabeth Debicki), whose unfulfilled sexual desires and stunted career ambitions quickly manifest into insecure jealousy. Conflicts worsen once Mr. Wicker starts physically and philosophically outshining all the other men in town, exposing their own inferiority complexes.
Fischer and Wilson, who adapt Ursula Wills’ short story The Wicker Husband, weave together smart commentary and quirky, dry British comedy into the characters’ interplay. From the top, and without making too fine a point about it, we get a good sense of the disparity – both financial and social – between the sniping villagers and our sympathetic heroine. So when the conflicts arise over The Fisherwoman’s newfound happiness, the jealousies of others feel completely organic to the circumstances. Instead of being inspired by the example being set and bettering their own relationships, they choose the wrong path of bitterness and resentment, which inevitably gets them in the end. The filmmakers don’t get into the weeds when it comes to Mr. Wicker’s free will either. His wants are few – basically to be free to love his wife, complement her life and see the sun, ocean and sky. We should all be so lucky. Anna Meredith’s ocarina-forward score augments the quirky (but never twee) atmospheric pull of the picture. Plus, the sound design team seems to be having a grand time as the sounds intoned (like wicker stretching and a bed exaggeratingly thumping) win out over the visuals (yes, we see wicker peen).
Colman conjures empathy for her character, gifting her with a rich, engaging internality. She delivers a good sense of pathos and gravitas in her work, even at times where some of the material causes the audience to question her character’s confused sensibilities. Skarsgård’s ability to emote under all the prosthetics and inside the practical wicker-looking suit (with a large assist by the VFX teams at Weta) is second to none. He infuses his performance with nuance and a child-like naiveté, gifting a soft, sweet soul to the unreal creation. He nails dialogue that makes us swoon repeatedly. Debicki makes for a delightful town bully. She colors her character not entirely as broadly cartoonish as the narrative might suggest (and less capable hands might play up), but with a more compelling, flintier side. While that does lead to a confusing comeuppance (causing us to doubt if we should be rooting for her at all), it shows she’s not just a one-dimensional villain.
There are moments that fail to fly. The Sam Raimi/ Evil Dead homage in The Tailor’s Wife’s fantasy sequence comes out of nowhere. The film suffers at the end of the 2nd act and beginning of the 3rd act from sharp tonal fluctuations where Fisherwoman’s beliefs about her man’s monogamy and love are called into doubt by Tailor’s Wife. The answers are clear as a bell to the audience as they should be to Fisherwoman considering her husband’s whereabouts and true heart’s love are always made known to her. Sure, those doubts are true of relationships in general in the real world, but here in this fantastical piece, they feel contrived. It’s also at this point where another desperate woman asks The Basketmaker for an unfathomable request and the filmmakers pay minor lip service to the ethical ramifications of it (a la Claudia’s complex quandary in INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE) but also skirt the physical implications too, especially given it’s used later as evidence of cheating. These characters are indeed not street smart, but they’re also not stupid.
Overall, WICKER is a charming film, so long as audiences don’t focus too much on any logistical complications. A little like RUBY SPARKS and LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, it’s got a good heart.
Grade: B-
WICKER is in select theaters on October 23, Expanding nationwide on October 30.
