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The new trailer for Wicker has already sparked laughter, gossip, and a few shocked reactions from festival crowds. What looks at first like a cheeky fantasy about a man made of straw turns into a film that blends crude humor, genuine emotion, and striking craft. If you liked the idea of a handcrafted lover getting up to mischief, this movie delivers surprises beyond the premise.
Reimagining a folk tale for modern audiences
Wicker adapts Ursula Wills-Jones’ short story about a woman who commissions a husband from a local artisan. The setup is simple and bizarre. A fisherwoman hires a basket weaver to create companionship. The creation comes to life as a handsome, straw-built man.
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Directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson lean into the tale’s absurdity. They build a world that feels medieval and claustrophobic. Social rituals and small-town cruelty sit next to awkward tenderness. The film plays like a dark fairy tale with a wink.
Performance craft: actors who sell the joke and the heart
The cast balances cartoonish moments with honest feeling. Olivia Colman anchors the film as the fisherwoman. Her warmth and blunt humor make the role feel lived-in.
Peter Dinklage portrays the maker with a quiet intensity. He brings a gravitas that turns an eccentric craftsman into a believable creative force.
Alexander Skarsgård inhabits the titular Wicker Husband. The performance mixes earnest confusion and romantic awkwardness. The result is both funny and oddly affecting.
- Colman gives the film its emotional compass.
- Dinklage offers the film intelligence and pathos.
- Skarsgård transforms physical spectacle into chemistry.
How the story skewers marriage and masculinity
Under its raunchy jokes, Wicker works as social satire. The wicker husband’s behavior prompts local women to question their own marriages. Small domestic changes create ripples.
The film asks blunt questions about intimacy, labor, and expectations. Scenes that begin as comic revelations quickly become moments of genuine discomfort and insight.
- Household roles are examined and upended.
- Sexual pleasure is reframed as mutual, not merely functional.
- Male pride and confusion are portrayed with comic bluntness.
Supporting actors sharpen these themes. Elizabeth Debicki plays the antagonistic townswoman with delicious nastiness. Nabhaan Rizwan provides a stubborn, comical foil as the Tailor. The smaller interactions often deliver the film’s sharpest observations.
Design and sound: making wicker feel tactile and alive
The production design is central to Wicker’s charm. The creative team needed a believable straw man who could charm the camera. They turned to Wētā Workshop for the physical suit and practical effects.
Wētā’s wicker costume blends sculptural craft with subtle prosthetics. It reveals and conceals the actor beneath. Light filters through the woven fibers. The effect is both fragile and oddly muscular.
Textures, movement and intimate choreography
The film uses physical detail to sell intimacy. Every shift of the wicker body creaks and responds like real material. Movement is choreographed to suggest both strength and vulnerability.
Sound design that sells the gag and the feeling
Foley becomes a punchline and a narrative tool. The sound team leaned into the tactile nature of the Wicker Husband. Foley editor Adrian Medhurst and recordist Simon Koehn captured a range of noises that underline the film’s physicality.
- Creaks and groans add comic timing.
- Subtle rustles make the stranger seem alive.
- Sound choices heighten both eroticism and absurdity.
What audiences are reacting to and when you can see it
Early screenings at the BFI London Film Festival sparked loud laughter and audible gasps. Viewers praised the film’s production values and the cast’s commitment to the central conceit.
Wicker blends bawdy humor with heartfelt moments. It has the kind of scenes that play louder in a packed theater. Expect both snorts and soft, surprised chuckles.
The film will reach cinemas later this fall. In the United States it opens on October 23. In the United Kingdom the release follows on October 30.
