BY CHRISTIAN TUFINO/CARDINAL POINTS
Rom-coms have a reputation of being grossly tied to perpetuating patriarchal narratives of love and dating. “The Wicker” looks these standards and social norms in the face and shows a love that transcends barriers and transforms people, for better or worse.
Synopsis
The film is set in a non-specific 17 century town where everyone is identified with their trade as opposed to their names. We follow Olivia Colman as the Fisherwoman, a widowed, middle-aged, fiercely independent woman who asks the Basket Weaver, played by Peter Dinklage, to make her a husband. Dinklage’s character laughs at the idea of marriage, despite the importance people of the village have toward it, but regardless makes him.
The Wicker Husband, played by Alexander Skarsgård, is brought into the world to serve as the Fisherwoman’s wife, but learns what love is through her love for him. This tender and compassionate love juxtaposes the toxic, heavily patriarchal marriages that are normal and celebrated in the village.
While the Fisherwomans’ and Wicker Husbands’ love grows, the sight of what could be leaves many of the wives of the villages looking for more out of their unfulfilling relationships. The husbands of the disgruntled wives become resentful of the Wicker Husband for raising the standard. Through a series of rumors and festering relationship issues, the villagers begin to unravel from the idealized versions of themselves and their relationships.
Review
Directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson come together again to present a both raunchy fantasy and a beautiful social commentary regarding social roles, dating and marriage.
Colman and Skarsgård take these unnamed characters with few lines of background and turn them into aspects of ourselves. They’re able to capture the tenderness, vulnerability, passion and even ridiculousness of love in every scene they’re in together.
Dinklage brings his witty and snarky personality into this role as he always does and serves as a refreshing checkpoint whenever he appears in the film.
Elizabeth Debicki as the Tailor’s Wife plays the ultra-conservative antagonist well and embraces her character’s hypocritical and absurd traits. Debicki’s marriage is characterized by her husband’s constant undermining of her contributions to their joint business. She is constantly praised for her beauty that people strive for but isn’t acknowledged for any of her other qualities. This unhappiness paired with her attempt to try and keep up the status quo of the good wife slowly starts to unmask the calm and high-strung persona she’s kept up.
This film also breaks away from the grand-gesture trope that most rom-coms abide by. The small gestures of care and genuine consideration the characters have for each other breaks the patriarchal and fantasized standards of love in rom-coms.
The symbolism and subtle but intentional writing decisions turn this rom-com into a wonderfully clever and raunchy social critique that I’d give a four and a half to five stars.
