“Wicker” could have been just a horror film, or just a comedy or just a salacious  romantic fairy tale-instead it is of all of them, but still a fairy tale-a cautionary fairy tale. It is not just about Olivia Colman wanting a husband, it’s about the village. The residents of the village that steer her to make that decision. It is the prejudices that become their crutch, their condemnation. Based on the book “The Wicker Husband” by Ursula Wills, the story collapses the patriarchal society of what seems to be a feudal middle ages village. The introduction to the Wicker husband is the introduction of chaos. It brings out the conversations that were never going to be discussed from the other villagers. Discussion of relationships and marriage, and sex. Topics that are rather uncomfortable   to the simple villagers with simple skills and jobs. For the Wicker man breaks up the status quo and does it quietly, and without violence. He brings chaos to the village by being a doting husband and respectable person and the great abundance of chivalry. The absolute shock he is to the village and that he is married to the unadmired fisherwoman of the village.

The costumes and the acting are great but the story doesn’t seem to have moved much beyond the concept. It is a great concept, a marvelous concept but the story is about the village, not just the mere existence of the Wicker husband and that is where the focus should be. The collapse of the village-revealing that the structure, the patriarchal foundation of their culture, or their livelihood could so easily falter by the presence of a man made out of wicker and with decency. That is where the exaggeration should be. The outrageousness isn’t that a woman married a man out of wicker, the outrageousness is that the village reaction and how they view themselves being measured by the wicker husband.

It is nearly reaching to be a great story, but still an amazing concept-a fantastic concept. The themes are flushed out, the characters are tangible, but the contrast needed to be dialed up more to it to really soar.  To show just how opposite the villagers are to a decent, wicker man completed  with manners and well tailored.

An enticing thought would be what if they embrace the horror more, or the salacious more. To tilt the scale to one end of the genre might suit the concept more. There is an attempt at the end to go horror, or too even break rules and go more salacious, to push the barriers of those genres, it should have gone all in one of them, instead it gives out slices of each.  8/10