Writer/director team Alex Huston-Fischer and Eleanor Wilson create a big screen fable that captures your imagination about the nature of envy and finding happiness filled with magical realism.
WICKER (2026)
★★★★ of ★★★★★ stars
I never imagined when I saw WICKER that it would end up being one of my favorite films of 2026, but this independent film from studio Black Bear not only has an attention-grabbing hook to grab you, but a well written story, solid performances from a great ensemble and a well-crafted production as well. Wicker’s hook is that of a sexy hunk of a man crafted out of wicker basket material to seduce an older woman. That much has intrigued potential viewers through its trailers and advertising since it bowed at the Sundance Film Festival this year, and that premise delivers a really hartwarming small movie that says a lot. Wicker stars Oscar winner Olivia Colman as a fisher woman who sells her catches at a small village of locals. One of those fellow vendors in this village is a craftsman played by Peter Dinklage with whom she strikes upm a friendship. The fisher woman is invited to a wedding in the village one afternoon. Despite feeling happy in the small life she has, she accidentally gets the equivalent of catching a bouquet at a wedding and the villagers mock her as if she could ever be the next to be married. She’s lowly, old, and not beautiful. This idea that she wouldn’t be worthy of a husband really makes her sad and she commissions Dinklage’s crafts man to make her a husband. Lo and behold, a month later a husband made of wicker (played by Alexander Skarsgard) shows up to marry her. They do marry and they have sex – a LOT of sex. These scenes are fun and it’s really refreshing to see sex treated as a fun thing adults do that is natural. Not only is the wicker husband a good lover, he’s a handyman – he immediately sets to fixing the bed that they broke in their escapades. As she introduces him into the village community, the villagers are taken with how attentive and loving he is towards the fisher woman. He builds envy and anger with the men, but also the town’s more influential members, like the Tailor’s wife, played by Tenet’s Elizabeth Debicki, who is the mean girl of the village. She tries to cut down the fisher woman and start rumors that the wicker husband is a philanderer who is cheating on her. But this is her resentment and loneliness rising as she resents the fisher woman’s independent and now her new found love. Will she break up the fisher woman and her husband? Will love prevail? These are some of the questions in Wicker.
I really love magical realism in movies; this film has it in spades. It reminds me quite a bit of Chocolat, where a newcomer shakes up a small conservative town with their free spirit and magical acoutrements. Here, Skarsgard and Colman’s chemistry really lights up every scene. I love 2026 for Alexander Skarsgard, with this being his 2nd consecutive movie about an unusual relationship dynamic opening up his partner’s inner life following Pillion from A24 earlier this year. But he is great in this film. The makeup in this is very intense and the sound design makes him feel simultaneously strong and fragile. Colman echoes this in her character; she comes off as strong to people viewing her from the outside but she is fragile and insecure. This is executed well and subtly throughout as she doesnt have a reason to question the husband’s fidelity, but her insecurity makes the tailor’s wife’s accusations believable to her because she cant believe anyone would want her because of the same reasons she asked for a wicker husband. The film is strong and really explores the human condition. The frailties and faults of the people of the town empower them to find things wrong with the husband and to try and drive him and her out of the town. Dinklage also shines as the basket weaver and the third act really speaks to the film’s message of the human condition and what actions envy can drive people towards. Dinklage is great in the film and the ensemble overall really makes the film come alive.
Wicker is one of the year’s best films and a lovely bit of big screen magic. Don’t let this one fly under your radar.
Wicker opens in theaters on October 23rd.