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The response to Wicker has been amazing to witness, from comments about people wanting to fall in love with baskets, to Ken Jennings comparing it to Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre, to questions of “Men, what’s stopping you from becoming the Wicker husband?” All of this for a little movie, put out by a non-major distributor, wherein Alexander Skarsgard is swathed in makeup and prosthetics to play the perfect man. Filmmakers Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson have created a playful and provocative fairy tale that taps into contemporary frustrations about relationships and gender expectations. (It’s one of my top 10 films of the year if you’ve read my review.)
But beneath the wicker exterior is a dark fantasy of a perfectly constructed husband that expands out to a discussion of what women want, what they are expected to settle for, and how female pleasure can be represented with humor and joy. “We’ve weirdly hit at just the right time,” Wilson told The Film Maven. “It seems like there’s a lot of conversation, before this film came out, about relationships and dissatisfaction in relationships, and things like domestic labor and the mental load.”
It’s something they were certainly aware of, having written the first draft adapting Ursula Wills’s short story five years ago, telling the story of a fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who obtains a husband made of wicker (Skarsgard). But with the passage of time, women’s ability to be vocal about the things they’re willing to put up with (or not) has only gotten louder. “There’s always been a complaint about there’s no good men out there, and I feel like now people are just much more vocal and articulate about why,” Fischer said. The Wicker husband might be a fantastical creation, but the frustrations that make him so appealing are anything but imaginary.
While audiences watching the trailer had comments about sex with a wicker man, what stands out about him is the simplicity with which the Wicker Husband does things, often without being asked. He’s compassionate. He listens. He sees his wife as a partner whose happiness makes him happy, and vice versa. “That’s the sexiest thing about it, right?” Fischer says. Skargsard’s physical attributes certainly helped make the Wicker husband more appealing. “[He] was the perfect specimen to build onto,” said Fischer, but Wilson said it went beyond just his physique and had a lot to do with Skarsgard’s persona. “He’s just such an interesting actor,” she says. “The choices that he makes, that he’s made throughout his career.”
The best part of my interview with the Wicker directors is waiting forGold Star Crew members. Hear Fischer and Lee’s thoughts on the gender dynamics of “creating a mate movies,” and whether Peter Dinklage’s casting is disabled representation. Unlock the full interview ⬇️
