Film reviews: Wicker is a bawdy romantic comedy — and it's well worth watching

Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgard as Fisherwoman and Wicker Husband

Wicker

★★★★☆

Based on the story The Wicker Husband by Ursula Wills, Wicker (15) is set in an unnamed place and time, although the setting looks medieval. The Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) is single, has her own house, and works as the village’s only fisherwoman. Unlike her, the other women are known not by their own names or jobs, but by what their husbands do. The Baker’s Wife (Ella Bruccoleri), for example, is referred to only as the Baker’s Wife.

It is a tough place to live. Everyone is a little rude, a little crude, and judgemental. The Fisherwoman unfortunately smells of fish, making her a laughing stock, with everyone happy to remind her that she will never get a man if she smells of haddock.

After another village wedding, where the Fisherwoman is laughed at again, she visits the Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) and asks him to make her a living, breathing husband.

The Basketmaker sets out to make a perfect wicker husband and excels. The Wicker Husband (Alexander Skarsgård) is tall and, as hard as it is to imagine, incredibly handsome. He is well-spoken, undeniably in love with his Fisherwoman, and longs to make her happy. They marry, much to the confusion of the villagers, but that confusion soon turns to jealousy.

The Fisherwoman and the Wicker Husband get up to some loud bedroom antics, leaving the women of the village quivering and the men wondering how they can up their bedroom game.

But it’s not just in the bedroom where the Wicker Husband excels. While his wife is out working, he cleans the house and fixes the roof, making it a cosy place for her to return to after a hard day’s work.

The village women, who have been slaving away after their husbands for years, begin to realise it doesn’t have to be that way. There is such a thing as a man who does the housework, cares for his wife, and is always ready to please her — ahem, literally.

This realisation begins to unravel the way the village has always operated. But as chaos reigns, the Fisherwoman, hurt by years of teasing, starts to wonder if the Wicker Husband really is too good to be true. Can she believe in their love before it all goes wrong?

On the one hand, Wicker is a bawdy romantic comedy that can be enjoyed simply for what it is. However, look a little deeper and you will find a biting commentary on patriarchal society, the unequal nature of domestic labour, and the obsession with the idea that women cannot be truly fulfilled without a partner.

The Fisherwoman finds love, and that is a joyful thing. But she shouldn’t have had to have a husband made for her just to fit in with the village. The village should have accepted her for who she was, in all her single glory.

However you choose to see it, you will be rewarded with a wonderfully wacky, bracingly funny, and surprisingly tender film, with a tremendous performance from Colman and a gorgeous, gentle turn from Skarsgård.

Primetime

★★★☆☆

Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen

To Catch a Predator was a popular NBC programme from 2004 to 2007. Hosted by Chris Hansen, it used undercover sting operations to expose men who arranged meetings with minors through online chatrooms, confronting them on camera.

Robert Pattinson stars as Hansen in Primetime (16), a look at the show’s rise. Early on, it’s clear Hansen is more interested in NBC stardom than protecting minors.

With help from his producer, Andie Bender (Merritt Wever), and Xavier (Matthew Maher), the tech expert tasked with chatting with predators online, Hansen pushes for increasingly disturbing encounters, hoping to give the show an even bigger audience.

Del (Phoebe Bridgers) is an established actor on the show, and Dan (Skyler Gisondo) is an aspiring actor who believes the role will be his ticket to fame.

As the line between investigative journalism and exploitation blurs, Hansen finds himself playing a dangerous game.

Difficult to watch because of its subject matter, Primetime is, in theory, a fascinating exploration of the lengths people will go to for fame. However, it becomes bogged down by a sense of hollowness.

Despite strong performances from Pattinson and Wever, the characters never quite feel real or fully rounded, coming across instead as cartoonish villains.

Director Lance Oppenheim employs a series of visually arresting shots, playing with framing and angles, but these stylistic flourishes aren’t enough to shake off the coldness that settles over the film early on.

Pattinson’s performance is intriguing, however, and may be enough to keep audiences engaged.

All About the Money

★★★★☆

James Cox 'Fergie' Chambers, in ‘All About the Money’

The Knox family are old-money Americans. James Cox Chambers, or Fergie, is the black sheep who left the family, but he did so with $250m after divesting his shares in the family business. Sinéad O’Shea’s documentary All About the Money (15a) follows his unconventional journey from the US to Ireland.

Fergie is a contradiction. He is an anti-capitalist and a multimillionaire. He runs a Leninist-Marxist collective in Massachusetts where he pays for housing, bills, and cars for several families and individuals.

As the group grows more politicised, cracks appear. Fergie’s wealth lets him leave the country while others face jail time.

In Tunisia, Fergie uses his wealth to sponsor a struggling football team, but trouble follows him. Before long, he finds himself in Dublin where, from the luxury of the Shelbourne Hotel, he begins to reveal truths about his childhood that paint a rather different picture of why he is the way he is.

All About the Money is an entertaining watch. Fergie is quite the character, and some of his antics are head-scratchingly fascinating, but at times it feels as though O’Shea can’t push him for answers; we are left wanting. You can’t help but feel that there was room to dig a little deeper.

Fergie’s unpredictability makes him a compelling subject, but it’s also what leaves parts of the documentary feeling a little unfinished.

It is, however, a testament to O’Shea that, even with some missing probes, she still manages to make a riveting watch.

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