The beauty-and-the-beast trope has had irreversible effects on our generation —how else would Ice Planet Barbarians exist? Romance stories centered on “spicy” interactions between a human-ish girl and a magical-beast-ish man are all the rage, and Wicker is riding the trend’s coattails. Bending the definition of “beast” a little bit, the movie follows a woman who commissions the local basket maker to make her sexed-out woven man to marry.
The trailer came out on July 30; take a look below.
Olivia Colman stars as an unmarried, charismatic fisherwoman. Alexander Skarsgård plays the aforementioned wicker man, wearing an elaborate, stiff-looking woven suit and makeup. Peter Dinklage plays his maker, the magic basket-weaver who breathes life into inanimate objects.
All of a sudden, once the shunned fisherwoman gets married, the entire village becomes jealous. Her new husband is polite and loving, and all of the women envy her. She gains confidence and becomes all the more attractive to the men of the community. Hijinks ensue.
The absurdist comedy is based on a short story called The Wicker Husband by U.K. author Ursula Wills. Before the movie, it was also adapted into a musical by Rhys Jenning and had elaborate onstage puppetry.
Wicker appears to have the charm and whimsy of a children’s fable, with deep irony and sexual tones creating a deeper, more complex story. The movie’s fantasy aspects and “spicy” romance, known in the world of books as “romantasy,” will undoubtedly bring a crowd of readers of the genre to the theatres.
The movie will have a limited theatrical release starting on October 23 and will expand nationwide a week later on October 30. Only proceed if you can stomach the creaky, crackly sound effects of wicker for an hour and a half. After all, “a hard man is good to find.”