‘Wicker’ movie review: Olivia Colman stars in a raunchy and compassionate satire of the romantasy genre
In *Wicker*, Olivia Colman plays an independent, lonely fisherwoman in a medieval village who unexpectedly conjures a husband woven from wicker. The film uses raunchy farce and fantasy to explore desire, sexual imagination and isolation, while questioning the roles and expectations imposed by a conservative community.
The wicker husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård, initially exists to give the fisherwoman pleasure, unsettling villagers whose own marriages are portrayed as formal and joyless. The review praises Colman’s empathetic performance and the ensemble, including Peter Dinklage and Elizabeth Debicki, for giving the satire emotional depth. Adapted from *The Wicker Husband*, the film also examines masculine anxiety and the loneliness beneath its characters’ pursuit of satisfaction.
- Olivia Colman plays a solitary fisherwoman who conjures a wicker husband.
- The medieval farce explores desire, loneliness and social expectations.
- The review praises its empathy and treatment of masculine anxiety.
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Romantasy combines romance with fantasy, often using magical settings to explore desire and relationships. Stories in the genre have become a subject of wider debate about how they portray sex, power and gender roles.
Wicker adapts Ursula Wills-Jones’s story The Wicker Husband. Olivia Colman plays a fisherwoman in a medieval village who creates a husband from wicker, played by Alexander Skarsgård; Peter Dinklage and Elizabeth Debicki are also among the cast.
The village’s reaction sets up a clash between private desire and community expectations. The story also considers loneliness and masculine anxiety, giving its comic fantasy a broader focus on how people seek intimacy and fulfilment.