Wicker

“Wicker” is a joyously bawdy fairy tale, a cheeky remix of “Beauty and the Beast,” and a sly satire of social hierarchies, with some poignant themes of mortality. It is wildly unexpected and a ton of fun.

It takes place in one of those timeless, placeless, fairy tale settings where you might spot Snow White or Belle in the town square. It’s not spotless, though. It is authentically muddy, and our heroine, who is the local fisherwoman, is so often insulted about the way she smells we can almost feel we are inhaling the scene of the fish she is delivering. In this community, no one has a name; everyone is known only by job, or the profession of one’s husband. So Olivia Colman plays Fisherwoman, who thanks to her profession, her odor, and her lack of a husband, is at the lowest rung of the town’s highly hierarchical social strata. At a town wedding, where one of the customs is to put the bride’s throat in a dog collar-style choker, Fisherwoman is mocked by being told she is the next to be married.

Fisherwoman visits the town has a Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) and asks him to weave her a husband. He readily agrees, and shortly one arrives (inside the intricately woven wicker is Alexander Skarsgard, still extremely dashing and handsome). He turns out to be a very satisfactory husband, devoted to Fisherwoman’s happiness in bed and around the house (except stoking the fire because he is quite flammable). She soon glows with the pure happiness of being devotedly loved. And the woman at the top of the social hierarchy, Tailor’s Wife (Elizabeth Debicki) discovers that it makes her very uncomfortable not to be able to feel superior. Fisherwoman is much too happy to care or even notice that other women in the town are envying her, much less that one of them might want to find a way to make her life less enviable.

Thanks to a very game cast, he film transitions seamlessly from wildly outrageous humor to thoughtfully explored themes of social hierarchies, mortality, tender romance, and what it really means to be human.

Parents should know that this movie is very explicit in its portrayal of sex, with some nudity and very strong and crude language. There is some peril and a character is badly injured.

Family discussion: What do the women of this town envy about Fisherwoman’s romance? Why does that make Tailor’s Wife so upset? Why are people identified only by their professions or the professions of the men in their lives? What will happen next?

If you like this, try: “Save Yourselves!” by the same writer/directors