Wicker: reviews

What the critics say average 6.9 from 45 outlets

• 10 The Film MavenKristen Lopez Wicker is such a sharp, and timely look at relationships, passed through the lens of a beautiful fable about magic and true love. Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard are fantastic. It's funny, sexy as hell, and one of the best movies of the year. Read
• 10 New York TimesJeannette Catsoulis Bouncing all the way to a truly perfect ending, Wicker is funny and freaky and sweetly romantic. It is also relentless in its conviction that the most destabilizing force in a society is a woman who dares to ask for what she wants. Read
• 9.1 The Film StageKent M. Wilhelm Wicker amounts to a can’t-miss curiosity, adeptly weaving humor, social commentary, and a potent contemplation on the self-destructive perils of jealousy. Read
• 9.0 Screen DailyAmber Wilkinson The script holds plenty of satire and laugh out loud moments, but Wilson and Huston keep it supple enough to bend protectively around the central love story, while allowing the morality tale element to still have bite. Read
• 8.8 New York PostJohnny Oleksinski Only an actress as caution-to-the-wind as Colman could connect so profoundly with a patio chair. Skarsgard’s sensitivity also helps. Read
• 8.8 Chicago TribuneKatie Walsh Woven and crafted with as much care as the wicker creations the Basket Maker animates, Fischer and Wilson deliver a feisty feminist fable that thrums and sings to the beat of its own drum, rhythmic and playful. Read
• 8.0 The Hollywood ReporterRichard Lawson Wicker is a warming, sometimes poignant pleasure, a film full of lively personality and possessed of a rather humane outlook on our petty foibles. It is not exactly forgiving, though; the movie has a harder, more merciless edge than one might expect. Read
• 8.0 Next Best PictureCody Dericks Wicker is a sweet, gently moving love story at its core that reminds its audience that the most effective and necessary traits for a successful relationship of any kind are simple honesty and respect. Read
• 8.0 Screen RantGregory Nussen Brought to life by yet another astounding performance by Olivia Colman and exquisitely shot and designed, Wicker's treasure is in its hopeless romanticism that insists that pure love and adamant individuality can create irrevocable progress through osmosis. Read
• 8.0 Time OutLeonie Cooper As gender allegories go, Wicker’s premise might be sledgehammeringly obvious, but the execution is immaculate. Read
• 8.0 IGNRoth Cornet Endearing and unusual, Wicker is bolstered by a thoughtfully constructed visual world and a powerful cast that grounds the material, particularly Olivia Colman. It draws us into a constrained society and spins a simple fable about authenticity, freedom, and being fully human in a world that so often wants to turn us into objects. Read
• 8.0 The IndependentClarisse Loughrey Wicker ridicules the patriarchy but shows great empathy for all those afflicted by it. Read
• 8.0 EmpireHelen O'Hara It’s sexy if not quite as saucy as the internet hoped, and instead succeeds best as a quirky fable with a lot of heart. Read
• 8.0 EspinofRandy Meeks It's true that Wicker loses its way a little after its fabulous first act, but it never stops being funny, charming and warm: it is a wonderful autumn film, delicately crafted and hard to forget precisely because it dances to its own tune. Read
• 8.0 SensaCineTomás Andrés Guerrero This is not a simple fairy tale: the film brims with a mature, vulgar and moving eccentricity that reflects on true love, loneliness and social prejudice. Read
• 8.0 AccionCineJesús Usero All of this is what this zany, one-of-a-kind little marvel wants to talk about, a mix of fairy tale, romantic comedy and sex comedy where anything is possible and nothing is what it seems at first sight. Read
• 7.8 The Austin ChronicleRichard Whittaker Above all, Wicker is a story about love, and what one should do when one wants to protect and nurture it. Read
• 7.7 The Globe and MailBarry Hertz While not every line of dialogue that escapes Fisherwoman’s mouth is a laugh riot, Colman’s delivery ensures that they are at least interesting, unexpected and eyebrow-raising. She brings a clean-cut discipline to the dirty work required of her. Read
• 7.5 IndiewireRyan Lattanzio Wicker threatens to feel largely like a logline writ into something grander (i.e., a short story with a wild idea stretched into a feature), but these actors are irresistibly weird and wonderful, as only they could be. Read
• 7.5 Slant MagazineMarshall Shaffer It’s a thrilling rarity because it marries a disposition of childlike sincerity with a story whose themes are adult in more ways than one. Read
• 7.5 The Boston GlobeOdie Henderson Wicker gets much of its satire from patriarchal rules, and much of its bite from its sexual frankness. Read
• 7.5 Roger EbertRobert Daniels Wicker offers many lessons in happiness, but its surest comes from a broad humor that leaves few safe from its delightful ire. Read
• 7.5 The Travers TakePeter Travers Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård create a bonkers new take on “Beauty and the Beast” that’s hilarious and sneakily heartfelt. Read
• 7.5 HobbyConsolasRaquel Hernández Luján A very well executed satirical fable, funny and daring when it talks about intimacy, desire and human frustrations, but also deep in its analysis of the envy and contradictions of a patriarchal society stuck in tradition. Read
• 7.0 ColliderTherese Lacson Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson's romantic fantasy film is a delightful and silly tale that masquerades as a fable. Beneath the surface of its folklore-esque concept, Wicker is more an exploration of human connection, a criticism of the patriarchy, and a fun exploration of just how far one ridiculous concept can be taken. Read
• 7.0 Los Angeles TimesAmy Nicholson Colman nimbly balances right on the line between humor and pathos. Still, even she can’t leap over the fact that the second half of the film skips several emotional beats. The fisherwoman’s love story is “Wicker’s” pulse, but the movie is really about the town and it sidelines her character to skewer the place. Frustratingly, by the end, we’re barely inside her head or heart at all. Read
• 7.0 Little White LiesKatherine McLaughlin In the age of chatbot romances and computer-generated desire this high concept comedy about companionship, romantic bonding and sexual fulfilment amusingly strikes pertinent notes as it examines the toxic ties of matrimony. It’s all served up with saucy humour and an unholy helping of double entendres. Read
• 7.0 MondoSonoroJ. Picatoste Verdejo The film has the charm of building a world of its own, as attractive as it is fearsome and populated by evocative characters; a seemingly distant microcosm that is nothing but a grotesque distortion of misogynistic attitudes that are still with us. Read
• 6.7 The A.V. ClubMonica Castillo Wicker is a strange fairy tale, both bizarre yet relatable in some matters of the heart. While some of the humor is shallow, somewhat reminiscent of Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, the film’s handling of deeper insecurities is quite disarming. Read
• 6.7 Original-CinLiam Lacey The dialogue aims for playfully literate, but often settles for jokes predictably on the nose or aimed at a lower appendage. To quote an old adage (not medieval, but a few centuries old), the parts that are good are not always original and the parts that original are not always good. Read
• 6.3 ReelViewsJames Berardinelli Compounded by an inconsistent tone, the actual movie simply doesn't do enough with its intriguing premise to justify anything stronger than a middling reaction. Read
• 6.0 VarietyPeter Debruge The filmmaking pair don’t stray far from Wills-Jones’ intention, using the story’s unspecified time and place to poke fun at superstition, the pressures to conform and the institution of marriage. Read
• 6.0 VultureAngelica Jade Bastien For all its explorations of love and lust, Wicker doesn’t quite reach its freaky potential. Read
• 6.0 NMEJames Mottram Unfortunately, despite the blossoming romance between the two, the story doesn’t contain enough momentum to push it beyond a Pinocchio-esque fable. The third act runs out of steam – despite an excellent final moment for Dinklage. Ultimately, Wicker skates along on its quirkiness, safe in the knowledge that it’s one of the more out there films of 2026. Read
• 6.0 The GuardianPeter Bradshaw The spirit of mystery author Shirley Jackson is interestingly revived in this peculiar folk-horror romance, adapted from a 2006 story called The Wicker Husband by British writer Ursula Wills. It’s almost funny but not exactly, and almost disturbing but not exactly, occupying a strange and intriguing Venn-diagram overlap between macabre horror and sentimentality. Read
• 6.0 FotogramasFran Chico Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson turn that premise into a twisted, romantic folk fable with a very British sense of humour, one that even allows itself to be sexy without losing sight of its tenderness. Read
• 6.0 Diario ASIgnacio Camacho Wicker has good ideas and a premise with potential, but its overly obvious satire and uneven staging keep it from reaching the magic of its references. Even so, its originality and a stellar cast hold up a peculiar fable that is worth discovering. Read
• 5.0 San Francisco ChronicleCarla Meyer Wicker is so thinly woven that a strong wind might blow it away were it not for its excellent cast, led by Colman. Read
• 5.0 The Wall Street JournalKyle Smith Far from being a daring allegory, the only risk Wicker faces is that of suffering wrist and elbow strain from patting itself on the back. Read
• 5.0 The RevealKeith Phipps Diverting until it becomes frustrating, Wicker retreats into cutesiness at every moment it threatens to create real drama or deliver a pointed observation. It’s well-constructed and nicely adorned but there’s not much inside it. Read
• 5.0 Movie NationRoger Moore It’s kind of fun, and timeless in its message. But lacking the edge and anarchy this sort of sex-based satire demands renders Wicker as instantly forgettable as its title and about as durable as that which its title character is woven from. Read
• 4.0 The GuardianBenjamin Lee She knows how to oscillate between broad comedy and heart-wrenching drama but the film around her isn’t as adept. Like the dream husband at its centre, Wicker looks the part but there’s nothing underneath. Read
• 4.0 The WrapChase Hutchinson Credit where credit is due to Wicker, it’s not every day you get to see an Oscar-winning actress mount a Hollywood heartthrob made into a literal wicker man. Alas, despite the novelty of seeing icon Olivia Colman climb a towering Alexander Skarsgård like a tree, the magical fable within which this happens is not only regrettably far less fun than this description sounds, but an oddly wearisome affair. Read
• 2.0 The TelegraphRobbie Collin Meanwhile, on the rare occasions that something does threaten to resonate emotionally – such as Debicki’s own deep-seated reasons for envying Colman’s marital happiness – Wicker loses its nerve and lapses back into whoops-a-daisy, watch-your-turnips-madam mode. Read
• 2.0 El PaísJavier Ocaña Despite the odd image with some visual power, though poorly fitted into the whole, the film has a tone that, without wanting to be grotesque, ends up being so; trying to be funny, it is merely ridiculous, and aiming to be critical, it is barely surly. Read