“Wicker” is a romantic fantasy comedy in which Olivia Colman plays a bullied medieval fisherwoman who, lacking social prospects, commissions a basket weaver to create a husband from wicker. Alexander Skarsgård appears as the resulting “wicker hunk,” a partner described across reviews as attentive, capable in domestic life, and sexually generous. The story uses the implausible premise to set up clashes between personal desire and rigid expectations placed on married women.
Reviews also describe how the film develops its central idea through villagers’ reactions. Several outlets frame the husband-as-made-object as a satirical contrast with village husbands and as a spark for women to question the arrangements they have accepted. The Independent highlights the practical effects that bring the character to life, while The Guardian emphasizes the film’s folk-horror ambience and notes its adaptation from Ursula Wills’ 2006 story “The Wicker Husband,” along with eerie village rituals and a Shirley Jackson-like influence.
At least one review argues that while the premise is sharp, the film’s pacing can flag and the romantic conflict leans on familiar jealousy and suspicion. Another also raises questions about whether a lovingly constructed husband can fully exercise free will, suggesting the screenplay resolves that tension without fully exploring it.
