On one hand, it’s pretty simple to promote writer-directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston’s peculiar fable “Wicker” as a reasonably typical love story. On the opposite, that description turns into significantly extra sophisticated when the central love curiosity is made fully of wooden. Wicker, to be exact. Tailored from Ursula Wills-Jones’ brief story “The Wicker Husband,” this delightfully unusual romance may look like an elaborate joke on paper, however beneath its absurd premise is an earnest, charming little story a few lady discovering love the place she least expects it, and a group pressured to rethink what a contented marriage ought to really appear like.
Set in a fictional seaside village, the movie establishes a society the place marriage is virtually a lady’s highest calling, even when the ladies themselves don’t seem significantly glad about it. Upon getting married, a metallic collar is mounted round their necks, a not-so-subtle image of the restrictions that include turning into somebody’s spouse. In the meantime, Olivia Colman’s Fisherwoman (everybody within the village is recognized by their career) has by no means had a husband, nor has she skilled even the slightest whiff of romance. Incessantly ridiculed by the townsfolk for her look and pungent odor, she’s however fiercely unbiased and has lengthy made peace together with her circumstances. If something, she’s one of many few ladies on the town who appears genuinely content material together with her lot in life.
That modifications following a marriage ritual involving Peter Dinklage’s Basket Weaver, which prompts the Fisherwoman to rethink whether or not she may desire a husband in spite of everything. Fairly than accept a lonely life, she commissions the Weaver to assemble her the proper man, no matter which may entail. It’s right here the place “Wicker” cheerfully abandons any obligation to elucidate its personal logic, although contemplating we’re coping with a fairy story, questioning the mechanics of a sentient wood husband appears somewhat irrelevant.
A month later, the Fisherwoman is launched to her new beau, performed by Alexander Skarsgård beneath a rare assortment of prosthetics and sensible results that make his very existence a marvel to behold. The make-up and craftsmanship alone deserve severe awards consideration, however what’s significantly spectacular is how Skarsgård manages to convey real tenderness beneath all that wicker. His Husband arrives with an nearly childlike eagerness to please, possessing no larger ambition than to like, recognize and take care of the girl he was created to marry.
And what a husband he seems to be. He repairs the home, tends the backyard, handles the chores and attends to his spouse’s sexual needs with appreciable enthusiasm. The 2 definitely aren’t afraid to go at it, both, and “Wicker” will get loads of mileage out of the logistical absurdities of their bodily relationship. But the Husband’s most radical high quality isn’t his anatomy, however his willingness to deal with his spouse as an equal. He listens to her, respects her independence and by no means considers home obligations beneath him.
Naturally, the opposite males on the town are horrified. Why would any self-respecting husband willingly do chores or exit of his approach to make his spouse glad? Extra importantly, why would he achieve this with out anticipating something in return? His conduct begins to reveal the shortcomings of the village’s marriages, significantly as the ladies acknowledge how little they’ve been conditioned to count on from their very own husbands. Amongst these taking discover is Elizabeth Debicki’s Tailor’s Spouse, the village’s resident imply woman, whose contempt for the Fisherwoman steadily turns into tangled with envy.
None of that is particularly revolutionary, and Wilson and Huston aren’t significantly focused on subtlety on the subject of their observations about male entitlement and the complacency that may settle into a wedding. The Husband is so impossibly thoughtful that the distinction between him and the village’s flesh-and-blood males virtually writes itself. There’s additionally some extent the place the movie begins circling the identical thought with out discovering a lot new to say about it. As soon as the preliminary novelty of a lady marrying a wicker man wears off, the story sometimes struggles to increase its social commentary past the somewhat apparent conclusion that ladies deserve companions who respect them.
Nonetheless, “Wicker” has sufficient persona, heat and splendidly offbeat humor to maintain its acquainted messaging from turning into tiresome. Richard E. Grant turns up briefly because the village physician in a single significantly hilarious sequence, whereas the movie’s unabashed willingness to embrace the sexual implications of its premise produces some sizable laughs. There’s definitely no scarcity of jokes involving the Husband’s somewhat spectacular log.
But the film is at its finest when it stops winking on the viewers and permits its central romance to breathe. One significantly beautiful sequence finds Colman and Skarsgård dancing intimately by way of the village streets, a lot to the jealousy of their neighbors. It’s an exquisite little second, not due to the spectacle of watching a lady dance with a person made from wicker, however due to how fully comfy they’re in one another’s firm. Colman, whose means to seek out emotional depth in even probably the most outlandish materials stays certainly one of her biggest strengths, makes the Fisherwoman’s newfound happiness really feel splendidly genuine. Likewise, Skarsgård by no means treats the Husband as a punchline, permitting his sincerity to turn out to be the movie’s biggest asset.
After all, “Wicker” leaves loads of questions unanswered. How does this man eat? The place does his consciousness come from? Is Dinklage’s Basket Weaver training some type of darkish magic? And maybe most significantly, how precisely does all that wicker maintain up beneath the pressure of marital bliss? The movie correctly has little curiosity in offering solutions, even when its whimsical method sometimes turns into an excuse to sidestep a number of the extra fascinating implications of its premise.
However the extra significant query isn’t how the Husband got here to exist, however why a person actually constructed to like his spouse ought to appear so extraordinary within the first place. That’s the place “Wicker” finds its most affecting remark. The Fisherwoman doesn’t want somebody to rescue her from an sad existence, nor does she should sacrifice the independence that made her content material within the first place. She merely discovers that sharing her life with somebody could make it richer, supplied that particular person appreciates her for who she already is. It’s a candy sentiment wrapped in an exceedingly weird bundle, and whereas the movie doesn’t all the time have the narrative depth to match its creativeness, Colman and Skarsgård make the romance surprisingly simple to consider. Generally the proper companion isn’t the one who sweeps you off your toes, however the one who’s prepared to place down roots beside you. Even when he’s made fully of wooden.
WICKER opens in theaters Friday, October 23.