Wicker

November 20 – 26

Fri Nov 20 – 3:30 & 7 pm
Sat Nov 21 – 7 pm
Sun Nov 22 – 1:30 & 7 pm
Mon Nov 23 – 7 pm
Tues Nov 24 – 7 pm
Wed Nov 25 – 3:30 pm Afternoon show ONLY
Thurs Nov 26 – 1:30 & 7 pm Final Show

Comedy / Romantic Fantasy / Drama
Rated 14A — 1 hr 46 min

Olivia Colman’s weird wooden romcom is 2026’s most bizarre film. The trick neatly pulled off by Wicker is that it feels – in tone, texture, speech and rhythms – similar to a Grimms’ fairy tale or something else from centuries past. Wherein, an unpleasant fisherwoman in an unenlightened medieval town asks the local basketmaker to weave her a partner. From there, the supernatural fable could be “Pinocchio” for adults, only it’s not the wooden creation’s nose that grows, and this ideal husband cannot tell a lie, whispering things like “I was made to be with you” and “You are the only reason that I live and breathe” — which are not only true, but just about the most romantic thing one can say to a woman so unfortunate of feature and unfragrant of aroma.

Directors Wilson and Fischer really deepen tale is in the private moments between the fisherwoman and her wicker husband, who awaits her at the altar in a handsome new suit and shoes borrowed from her neighbors — the tailor (Nabhaan Rizwan), shoemaker (Scott Alexander Yougng) and so on. Back at her run-down shack, the long-neglected lass enthusiastically experiences a lover’s attention for the first time, unperturbed by his wooden … everything. And who can blame her, seeing as how the strapping sapling is embodied by Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård, clearly recognizable beneath a veneer of elegantly woven willow?

Much of the movie is an absurdist satire about medieval (and modern) patriarchy, where marriage ceremonies come with literal collars for the bride and smart women are reduced to the identities of their fathers and husbands—like Elizabeth Debicki’s Doctor’s Daughter turned Tailor’s Wife. There’s something almost Monty Python-esque about it all, though writer/directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson ultimately play around in some thornier emotional keys as well. Fisherwoman stumbles into a dream scenario when she accidentally winds up with a hot husband who will build his world around her rather than vice versa. Yet as their unconventional marriage sends the town into a tizzy, Fisherwoman begins to doubt whether it’s all too good to be true.

Wicker is a bawdy comedy that fulfills all expectations. For one, we do indeed discover what fornicating with a sentient wicker basket might look like. But Wicker also complicates the gag with a touching portrait of how patriarchal expectation has robbed romance of the use of its tongue – in all meanings of the phrase.

It’s a clever riff on what classic fairy tales might feel like if they were predominantly aimed at sympathizing with women and teaching life lessons to men. If Wicker is a bit slight in the end, that fits its fairy tale quality too. Bawdy, whimsical, and poignant in equal measure, Wicker is a charming surprise brought to life.