The man Alexander Skarsgård plays in Wicker may be woven together with sticks and straw, but he’s the kind of guy you want to be. Never mind that he’s a literal basket case. Mystical forces bring him to life, but he proves himself to be more grounded than most of the ordinary people in his village.
He’s a devoted partner, a helpful neighbor, a tireless worker, and, on top of it all, an impressive lover. Those who don’t adore him completely loathe him, usually for the exact same reasons. The bawdy storybook comedy, which hits theaters on Friday, is written and directed by the husband-and-wife filmmaking team Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, who adapted it from the short story “The Wicker Husband” by Ursula Wills.
He is asked to make this ideal companion by Olivia Colman’s lonesome, middle-aged outcast, known as The Fisherwoman. (Everyone in the story is known only by their work.) Her Wicker Husband adores her, but their fellow townsfolk grow curious, then jealous, and finally turn against both of them, which stress-tests their happily-ever-after. Wicker also gets surprisingly provocative. This is not a bedtime story for children, but more like a bedtime story for adults.
The oddball couple’s loud nighttime passions both unsettle and intrigue their neighbors. Some men in the village feel he makes them look bad, and they’re mostly right—many of the local ladies only wish they had partners who were so capable and caring. A few of the couples have even more provocative ideas in mind, as if adding a third made of furniture material is as easy as adding another chair to their table.
Even though the story seems to be set long ago, it has modern trends on its mind. We wanted to bring a lot of that into the script,” Wilson says. A young fellow known as the Bottle Washer starts to see Skarsgård’s character as a mentor, after too long being misled by the folktale version of toxic influencers.
Along with last year’s Train Dreams, Wicker models a kind of honorable masculinity. The Wicker Husband is strong but thoughtful, protective but sensitive, and he’s deeply, madly devoted to his Fisherwoman. Still, their best-laid plans start to unravel, testing what it takes to hold their relationship all together.
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