"In terms of attention-demanding loglines, this year's Sundance has a few. There's body horror Saccharine, about a diet craze that involves eating human ashes, midnight movie Buddy, about a Barney-esque kids TV star who starts murdering children and then there's Mum, I'm Alien Pregnant which, well, you can probably imagine. But the annual wait, what? prize easily goes to offbeat fable Wicker, the story of a smelly spinster fisherwoman who commissions herself a husband made of, that's right, wicker."
"She's largely immune to the insults though, happily removed from the archaic gender roles that curse the local village. But after she sneers through another comically awful wedding, the jabs start to have an effect and rather than laughing it away, she asks the local basket-maker (Peter Dinklage, forever seeming like he's on the verge of breaking into song) to make her a husband. A month later, he arrives."
"While the film does have its expected amount of audience-provoking moments wicker-fucking bringing the most noise both on and off the screen to its credit, there's an attempt to give us more than just easy shock value, something that can't always be said for films in this often tedious category. They succeed in brief flashes but ultimately, there's too much here that doesn't gel, a tonally uneven mix of mostly unfunny bawdy humour, dark fantasy and unlikely romance, too much wood but not enough fire."
Wicker follows a smelly spinster fisherwoman who rejects archaic gender roles and, weary of village insults, commissions a husband made of wicker from a local basket-maker. The wicker husband arrives and sets up a surreal narrative that blends dark fantasy, bawdy humour, and unlikely romance. The filmmakers aim to address patriarchal cruelty in marriage and the social fury aimed at those living outside accepted rules. The movie lands provocative, audience-provoking moments but often relies on shock value and tonal shifts. Strong worldbuilding and ambition coexist with uneven execution, leaving flashes of insight amid unfunny moments and inconsistent tone.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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