Wicker has a romance premise that sounds as though someone lost a bet with a folklore professor, and its latest poster makes sure nobody mistakes this for an ordinary love story. Olivia Colman embraces a mysterious figure whose head is hidden beneath a rough, woven covering, turning the image into a strange mix of intimacy, craft and something that could probably use a very serious safety inspection.
Colman plays a lonely fisherwoman who lives on the edge of a seaside village where her neighbors ridicule her. Tired of their judgment and the prospect of spending the rest of her life alone, she commissions a village basket maker, played by Peter Dinklage, to weave her a husband out of wicker. Alexander Skarsgård plays the creation who arrives to become her partner, and the village quickly discovers that this unconventional marriage is not going to stay a private matter.
That basic idea gives the film an immediate hook, but the poster adds a useful layer of unease. Rather than presenting the wicker husband as a cute fantasy companion, the image places him close to Colman’s character with his face concealed, making the romance feel both tender and faintly unsettling. It leaves the viewer wondering how much of the character is a person, how much is a creation and why the town feels entitled to judge a relationship that does not involve it.
Wicker is directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, who adapt the short story “The Wicker Husband” by Ursula Wills-Jones. The story’s central joke is also its central conflict: the woman’s solution to loneliness is so strange that the community treats it as a threat. A husband made from woven material sounds ridiculous until the film asks why a village accepts some social rules without question while punishing anyone who tries something different.
Colman is well suited to the role because she can make an outsider feel funny, wounded and stubborn without forcing the audience to choose just one response. Skarsgård’s physical performance has another challenge, as the character’s unusual construction needs to read clearly without reducing him to a walking prop. Dinklage, meanwhile, plays the maker whose craft sets the entire story in motion. Elizabeth Debicki rounds out the principal cast.
The film’s title and poster may tempt viewers to expect a straight horror story, but Wicker sits closer to dark fantasy and offbeat romance. The strange husband is the visual headline, yet the village’s reaction gives the premise its bite. The film is not simply asking whether a woman can fall for a man made from wicker. It is also asking why everyone else believes they get a vote.
Wicker is scheduled to open in U.S. theaters on October 23. The new poster is doing its job by making the central relationship impossible to ignore, even if it leaves the film’s exact tone open to interpretation.
A basket-weaved husband is certainly an unusual dating choice. Still, if the alternative is a village full of people who judge your every decision, perhaps the wicker option deserves a chance.