‘Wicker‘ is one of the most original and surprising films I have seen lately. The screenwriters and directors are a husband-and-wife filmmaking duo, Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, who have only a few films to their credit—either individually or together. They adapted a short story by Ursula Wills, a little-known British author, and intentionally set the narrative in an indeterminate time and place. From the story’s 14 pages, they have crafted a world dominated by superstitions that have evolved into traditions, and ancestral beliefs that have become established customs—complete with social rules and family dynamics rooted in the distant past. Love has little place in this world; only the intervention of magic can bring it back into people’s lives. And if everything that defies explanation is considered magic, then anyone who loves is an ‘Outsider’— and outsiders are not easily welcomed into a world so completely closed off within itself.
The film resembles a period drama, yet it is much more than that. It is set somewhere along the English coast—sometime between the Middle Ages and the mid-19th century—within a rural community where people do not address one another by name, but rather by their profession or their specific role in village life: the Baker and the Baker’s Wife, the Tailor and the Tailor’s Wife, the Butcher and the Butcher’s Wife, the Innkeeper and the Innkeeper’s Wife, the Doctor and the Doctor’s Daughters, and so on. On the fringes of the village and its community live the Wicker Weaver Basketmaker — marked from birth by his diminutive stature — and the Fisherwoman, a woman well past her youth who remains alone and unmarried, perhaps partly due to the distinct odor associated with her trade. Although women work far harder—often while the men spend long hours at the pub —life is dominated by the men. The most fitting symbol of this is the collar placed around a woman’s neck at her wedding. The Fisherwoman alone rejects this collar and any conventional relationship, yet she, too, is haunted by solitude. In desperation, she asks the Basketmaker to craft a husband for her out of willow branches. The craftsman pours all his skill—and a bit of his own soul—into his work. The result exceeds all expectations. The Wicker Husband not only brings fulfillment to the Fisherwoman’s life but also shakes the very foundations of the village’s social order, altering the destinies of the men—and, above all, the women.
‘Wicker’ is a beautiful love story, as well as a social and moral parable of a freshness and originality rarely seen of late. The two writer-directors succeed in translating this into the language of cinema, deftly navigating formal challenges that could easily have steered the plot toward the tedious or the ridiculous. That is not the case; on the contrary, what unfolds on screen is a story that flows seamlessly—thanks in no small part to a blend of erotic boldness and humor, a hallmark of English literature dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries. If certain themes resonate with striking contemporary relevance—such as the commentary on social networks (akin to the old concept of “the town grapevine”) or the rejection of the “outsider”—it is because these human flaws are inherited, not newly discovered in the 20th or 21st centuries. Everything feels natural, engaging, and highly entertaining. Olivia Colman adds another wonderful performance to her filmography; I believe she stands a strong chance of earning an Academy Awards nomination for Best Actress. Alexander Skarsgård shows the courage to conceal his physique behind a mask and costume—reminiscent of Jean Marais in ‘La Belle et la Bête‘. Peter Dinklage, a star of the small screen, shines in a role that defies his stature on the big screen. The entire cast is expertly directed. Special mention must go to the set designers, as the film was shot almost exclusively in studios in Hungary. Among the cinematic offerings during this pre-awards season, ‘Wicker‘ stands out as something different — in the best possible way.