Set in a timeless yet antiquated village like those in countless fairy tales, Wicker is a comically dark adult fable that follows an ostracized Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who commissions the local Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) to weave a husband for her. When her new, enchanted husband (Alexander Skarsgard)—made completely of wicker—comes to life, his infectious charm and pure love for his bride makes other men and women in town green with envy. Co-writers and directors Eleanor Wilson and Alex Huston Fischer (the duo behind Save Yourselves!) adapted Wicker for the screen from a short story by Ursula Willis. (105 min.)
Editor’s note: The Starkeys are on vacation, so New Times Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal and Sun Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood took the reins this week.
Wicker
What’s it rated? R
What’s it worth, Bulbul? Full price
What’s it worth, Caleb? Full price
Where’s it showing?
Regal Edwards RPX Santa Maria,
Regal Arroyo Grande
Bulbul: Wicker’s raunchy trailer starring Olivia Colman (Fleabag, The Crown) and the strapping but almost unrecognizable Alexander Skarsgard (Pillion, True Blood) sure is a seat-filler, but the events that precede and follow their moments of passion are surprisingly wholesome. Mocked and seemingly marginalized in the village for her line of work, Colman’s Fisherwoman gains a magical new companion in the Wickerman. He may be wicker, but he’s marriage material: caring, soft-spoken, and happy to fix up her house. Plus he makes love vigorously enough to break the bed (and mend it immediately, of course). The pep in the Fisherwoman’s step and the Wickerman on her arm spark confusion, anger, and primarily jealousy among the villagers, especially the Tailor’s Wife played by Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown, Tenet). What ensues is a calculated effort to sow doubt and breed distrust, with a well-crafted warning to the audience that it’s easier to believe the bad than the good.
Caleb: For those who know Skarsgard best as Nicole Kidman’s slimy, sadistically self-serving spouse in Big Little Lies, he’s playing the complete opposite here. There isn’t a bad bone in his boneless body. But his kind demeanor never comes off as overly saccharine. He’s not a brownnoser; he’s just observant and gets things done when the need arises, without being asked—anything to make his wife’s life just a little easier. His devotion never comes across as stemming from a hypnotic state or magic spell—contrary to what his conjured origins could suggest. He’s just a decent being, more decent than most of the human villagers in his orbit. In some scenes, the juxtaposition of Skarsgard’s stoic Wickerman and his peers in town, some of whom can be cartoonishly cruel, feels jarring. That’s when we’re reminded of Wicker’s roots in fairy tale logic, themes of good versus evil, just desserts, etc. Without a few nods to those tropes though, I don’t think Wicker’s finale would have felt quite so satisfying yet still a bit surprising. There were a few big twists I really didn’t see coming.
Bulbul: Wicker may be set in an anachronistic medieval-style village, but the identity of the protagonist Fisherwoman is very much modern. She’s the only villager whose name isn’t linked to a man’s. There’s the Tailor’s Wife, formerly the Doctor’s Daughter; the Baker’s Wife; the Bottlewasher’s Wife; the Butcher’s Wife; and so on. But the Fisherwoman is firmly and unapologetically just who she is. It’s the Wickerman who’s sometimes called the Wicker Husband around town. He’s a refreshing upending of the trope where the woman is often presented as the object to mold with a constitution yet to be uncovered. Props to the film’s prosthetic make up department, too, for bringing the Wickerman’s fully practical fabricated suit to life.
Caleb: I’m convinced Wicker will score the Oscar it deserves for best makeup, and at least a nomination for best costumes. The Wickerman’s CGI-less design is especially impressive during intimate close-ups of his basket-skinned face with Skarsgard’s blue-eyed gaze lurking between the weaves. I read that designers applied more than 60 separate prosthetics to Skarsgard each day of filming, all within a 90-minute period. Whatever innovations the Wicker crew employed to flesh out their fleshless protagonist, they were barking up the right tree.
New Times Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal and Sun Senior Staff Writer Caleb Wiseblood wrote this week’s Sun Screen. Reach them at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com and cwiseblood@santamariasun.com, respectively.
This article appears in November 5 – November 12, 2026.
