Olivia Colman leads uneven fable Wicker at Sundance

Wicker, an offbeat fable screening at the Sundance film festival, stars Olivia Colman as a smelly spinster fisherwoman who commissions herself a husband made of wicker. Writer-directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson, who previously brought Save Yourselves! to the festival, use the far-out premise to touch on issues such as the patriarchal cruelty of marriage and the special fury aimed at those who live outside accepted rules.

The review praises the film's ambition and moments of insight but calls it tonally uneven, a mix of mostly unfunny bawdy humour, dark fantasy and unlikely romance—"too much wood but not enough fire." Colman’s Fisherwoman is largely immune to insults until she requests a husband from the local basket-maker (Peter Dinklage); a month later he arrives as Alexander Skarsgård in impressively rendered wicker, with effects work singled out as strong.

The village is depicted as a society where men are known by profession and women by their relationship to a husband, with a wedding ritual that involves a collar rather than a ring; Elizabeth Debicki plays a spiralling queen bee whose reaction helps unsettle the community. The review finds the central relationship underdeveloped: early scenes dwell on vigorous sex and unanswered questions rather than exploring the husband's perspective or agency, and when tragedy comes there is little emotional attachment.

Key Topics

Culture, Olivia Colman, Wicker, Sundance Film Festival, Alex Huston Fischer, Eleanor Wilson