Film Review: WICKER (2026): A Wickedly Good Time That Never Stops Surprising the Audience

Wicker Review

Wicker (2026) Film Review, a movie directed by Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, written by Ursula Wills, Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson and starring Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, Gustav Lindh, Máté Mészáros, Kiell Smith-Bynoe, Scott Alexander Young, Ben Ashenden, Ella Bruccoleri, Emily Lloyd-Saini, Marli Siu, Phil Daniels, Daniel Bellus, Nabhaan Rizwan and Shobu Kapoor.

Filmmakers Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson’s hysterical dark comedy, Wicker, has a lot to say about the lack of compassion found in relationships between humans and other humans as well as the romantic potential between humans and wicker people. This film creates a world that is very unique, and that different world just lends itself to the quality of this rather humorous, if a bit obscure, love story. Set in a seaside village, Wicker is a perfect movie to see on a first date as it opens up some provocative doors to further discussions.

Peter Dinklage co-stars in a terrific performance in the movie as The Basketmaker, who grants the lonely and disappointed, The Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman), a wish for a husband for a fair price. That price may not be worth it for this neighborhood sad sack until The Basketmaker comes through and creates an actual partner for The Fisherwoman. That partner comes in the form of a handsome wicker man (Alexander Skarsgård), who appears just as The Basketmaker realized him to help The Fisherwoman in her quest for happiness.

Wicker is wickedly funny, above all else. There’s passion on-screen, thanks to Olivia Colman as she throws herself into the lonely want-to-be bride role quite well. This movie doesn’t spare scenes of the Wicker Husband, who literally just appears out of thin air one day, and his sexual relations with The Fisherwoman. It’s intriguing to watch Colman’s character be pleasured by the Wicker Husband, but the movie does go for sex humor a tad more often than it should have.

Dinklage’s character is a driving force of the plot. When a neighborhood woman, The Bottlewasher’s Wife (Marli Siu), is unhappy with the cards she has been dealt with in life, she asks The Basketmaker to give her a baby that her husband, The Bottlewasher (Gustav Lindh), could not provide for her for reasons you’ll see as the movie progresses along.

This is Skarsgård’s movie to own because he plays his role completely straight as opposed to Colman, who is having a great time, but is playing the showy part too humorously at times instead of having more intensity intact in the role. Skarsgård is relaxed as the Wicker Husband, and his answers to those characters who challenge him basically suggest that he loves The Fisherwoman uncondtionally, and he just wants to be happy with her despite all the temptations that surround him.

Colman is perfectly fine in this role, but this is a part she could have played with her eyes closed, given the talents of the very formidable Colman. Sex scenes do overstay their welcome, and there are too many scenes that just happen without figuring logic too much into the equation.

Siu is excellent as the wife who just allows her husband to have sex with her without showing him much interest in return. When tragedy strikes and she goes to The Basketmaker, what happens next will certainly surprise people who have not read the written story on which this film is based.

As Siu adds depth to her solemn character, the performance of Lindh is also effective despite the actor’s brief screen time within the picture. There is one more central role here and it is that of The Tailor’s Wife (Elizabeth Debicki), who is looking for trouble because of her own fantasies, and she may just find trouble if she’s not careful. Debicki is good in an underwritten role, and has poise as she delivers her lines in just the right fashion.

There are some spoilers, which are best to be avoided at this film’s stage in its intended release by Black Bear. One could complain about the abundance of unlikable characters in Wicker, but the presence of Colman and Skarsgård certainly helps the film’s cause out a great deal.

This is the type of movie where you’re laughing out loud one minute and in awe the next of the way the movie pulls out all the stops with a series of plot developments that happen in the later part of the picture. Wicker doesn’t fail in providing its audience with great humor and entertaining interactions between the main characters.

It’s hard to know who will like Wicker the best, but the movie is mostly geared towards older adult audiences, who will enjoy the picture’s unpredictable nature, complete with two wicked plot developments near the film’s end. Although the jury is still out on the very ending of the movie where Dinklage’s character reveals another creation, the majority of this film is hugely entertaining to behold.

Wicker tries hard to be something profound, and it’s about half way towards that goal in the film’s present state. There’s a lot going on here, and the movie juggles a handful or two of unique characters, who really do make the movie more enjoyable than it was predicted to be considering the lack of promotion the film received in terms of advertisements for it.

Colman and Skarsgård are a satisfying, well chosen pair, and their scenes together are quite emotional whenever Colman decides to amp her character up a bit, which happens more often than not. In support, the side characters tend to be more background actors looking to squeeze a line or two in, wherever possible.

As the townfolk in the movie become jealous of The Fisherwoman, the film lays out its message about how those who are different tend to get in much more trouble than those who are ordinary. Skarsgård presents the type of performance that it may be hard to imagine, but seeing is believing. This man can surely act.

Wicker tends to be more mainstream than it needed to be, and it isn’t always capable of presenting the themes it wants to convey perfectly in regard to the non-Wicker side characters in the picture. Still, it’s a pleasant diversion with some greatly topical themes that could provoke conversations afterwards.

Rating: 7.5/10

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