NEW YORK (OSV News) — The adult-oriented but never crass romantic fantasy “Wicker” (Black Bear) makes an old-fashioned case that there’s a man for every woman. Provided, in this case, that she’s not too particular about him being woven from willow rods.
Husband-and-wife co-writers and directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson have adapted Ursula Wills’ short story “The Wicker Husband,” published in 2008, into a near-perfect fable about loneliness, self-esteem, and the fulfillment men and women can find in each other.
In an imaginary long-ago, far-away village, everyone is identified solely by the work they do. The Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman), a spinster, sells her catch every day and is mostly known in the community for retaining the smell of her fish.
Weddings there have peculiar rituals. Brides are adorned with collars to underline their status as chattel, and after each wedding, a ritual involving eggs woven by the mysterious Basket Weaver (Peter Dinklage) determines the next woman to be wed.
When it’s the Fisherwoman’s turn, she decides she doesn’t want to go through the humiliation of being rejected. So she asks the Basket Weaver to build her a husband. It’s her idea of a joke on her tormentors.
The Basket Weaver not only succeeds in his commission. He somehow manages to instill life and empathy into his handsome creation (Alexander Skarsgard).
In fact, Wicker Man is perfect in all other respects as well. He’s moral, kind to everyone, and attentive to the Fisherwoman’s emotional needs. With her life and household in order, she glows with contentment.
The villagers, after their jokes about the Wicker Man’s romantic prowess become stale, react with jealousy. The men know they can’t measure up to this ideal, and the women resent the Fisherwoman’s new happiness. The lack of satisfaction in their own marriages, moreover, becomes uncomfortably obvious.
When the Bottle Washer’s widow (Marli Siu), despondent at the loss of her husband, asks the Basket Weaver to make her a wicker baby, he obliges. But this launches gossip that Wicker Man has been unfaithful, slander that’s egged on by the Tailor’s Wife (Elizabeth Debicki).
Eventually the men of the village decide that a wicker woman would make their lives ideal. But this does not go the way they hope.
The movie takes on the joys and disappointments of married life straightforwardly. It also goes in unexpected directions that keep its story compelling.
The film contains a couple of scenes of semi-graphic marital lovemaking, implied sexual activity, rear male and partial nudity, bawdy humor including crude sexual banter, fleeting gore and brief rough language. The OSV News classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is R — restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.
Kurt Jensen is a guest reviewer for OSV News.
