‘Wicker’ review: Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard are made for each other in charming love story

Dirs: Eleanor Wilson, Alex Huston Fischer. US. 2026. 105mins

To create a creature that is frightening is an impressive feat but, arguably, it takes more skill to craft one that retains a strangeness yet is still fundamentally sweet. That’s just one of the many achievements of Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston’s wickedly funny and delightfully romantic fable, which revolves around a character known only as The Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) and her unusual groom (Alexander Skarsgard).

Wickedly funny and delightfully romantic fable

Wilson and Huston’s second feature after 2020’s Save Yourselves! is an intelligent crowdpleaser offering sly reflections on modern society, adapted from Ursula Wills’ short story The Wicker Husband (which has previously been turned into a 2020 British musical stageplay). Boasting a talented big name cast, which also includes Elizabeth Debicki, Peter Dinklage and Richard E Grant in a small but significant cameo, it has bags of commercial potential going forward after screening in Sundance’s Premieres section.

Wicker is set in an English village that could have been plucked from any number of medieval fairy tales, where the male townsfolk are known only by their trade – such as The Bakerman (Ben Ashenden), The Butcher (Phil Daniels) and, for one unlucky soul, The Bottlewasher (Gustav Lindh). The women fare even less well, being named as chattel, smoothly moving from the likes of The Doctor’s Daughter to The Tailor’s Wife (Debicki) upon marriage.

Women’s status in this world is underlined by a wedding in which we see the groom cement the nuptials by putting a metal collar around his wife’s neck. Instead of the bride tossing her bouquet in the air, The Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) has crafted wicker eggs that hold a surprise. When The Fisherwoman, who the locals scorn for her smelly unkemptness, is unexpectedly named the next to wed, the condescending reaction of The Tailor’s Wife spurs her to take matters into her own hands, and she asks The Basketmaker to make her a husband.

Skarsgard’s character is a triumph of practical effects from Joe Dunckley and WETA Workshop, with his expressive eyes and beard along with an intricately woven face which gives him a touch of the werewolf and echoes of Beauty and The Beast. The subtle but consistent sound design from Andy Neil makes him creak like an old rocking chair, and adds both depth and vulnerability. There’s nothing beastly about The Wicker Husband at all; in addition to repeatedly breaking his wife’s bed with his impressive lovemaking, he’s also a willing fixer-upper when it comes to their home.

Warm lensing from Oscar-winner Lol Crawley (The Brutalist) frequently employs a magic hour glow or flickering firelight to add to the feeling of heat between the main characters. The scoring from Anne Meredith is also responsive to the film’s various moods, moving unobtrusively through humour to tension and poignancy.

The Wicker Husband’s gentle demeanour and ability to satisfy his wife in ways the other husbands wouldn’t even dream of lead to jealousy around the town, particularly from The Tailor’s Wife whose own husband (2019 Screen Star of Tomorrow Nabhaan Rizwan) refuses to view her as anything other than a homemaker. Scheming to spoil the happiness of others seems to be all she has left.

Colman performance as The Fisherwoman is crucial to the film’s success. She’s smart enough to stand up for herself against the pettiness of the villagers but also with a flickering insecurity that means she can’t quite believe her good luck. Skarsgard plays it straight against her, so her distrust highlights humanity’s tendency for self-destructive doubts even in the most perfect of circumstances.

The script holds plenty of satire and laugh out loud moments, but Wilson and Huston keep it supple enough to bend protectively around the central love story, while allowing the morality tale element to still have bite.