Wicker has earned mixed reviews from critics, but the raunchy fantasy film's lead star Olivia Colman has won praise for another stellar performance.
Adapted by husband and wife director/writer team Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson from a short story by Ursula Wills-Jones, Wicker follows Olivia’s lonely Fisherwoman whose love life is hampered by her constant fishy odour.
Desperate for affection, she commissions the local basket weaver – played by Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage – to fashion her a husband out of wicker.
The creation, played by Alexander Skarsgård, comes to life and proves so alluring that it sparks fierce jealousy among the village’s women, led by Elizabeth Debicki, threatening to disrupt the social order.
The first trailer was released to much fanfare in July, with viewers in shock at the graphic scenes between Olivia and Alexander.
The reviews are now in following Wicker's London Film Festival premiere last week.
Wicker has earned mixed reviews from critics, but the raunchy fantasy film's lead star Olivia Colman has won praise for another stellar performance
Robbie Collin at The Telegraph has awarded the film just one star, calling it 'a mortifying adult fairy tale'.
'There is only so much comic mileage in having Colman re-enact the Kama Sutra with a sentient basket,' he decides.
Others have disagreed though, with the Daily Mail's Brian Viner awarding the film four stars, praising the supporting cast, 'an uproarious cameo' for Richard E Grant and a 'splendid' Skarsgard.
'But it is Colman who steals the show,' Viner writes, 'beautifully conveying Fisherwoman's downtrodden loneliness, then her joyful smugness, although that in turn gives way to anxious paranoia when gossip about the Wicker Husband's fidelity begins to circulate and the story takes a tragic turn'.
Kevin Maher for The Times agrees in another four star review, writing that 'Olivia Colman weaves an astonishing performance'.
'How good is Olivia Colman? The 52-year-old best actress Oscar winner is so good that she single-handedly elevates this “quirky medieval romp” into unexpected, even undeserved, places,' he writes.
Stephen A Russell for Screenhub also awards four stars. 'Colman, as ever, delivers a one-woman masterclass, conveying huge waves of o’er-crashing feelings on her remarkably expressive face,' he writes.
'Skarsgård resists thatching it up too much, playing his gorgeous golem with a quiet, rumble-voiced charm, a more contented version of Mary Shelley’s monster.'
In another four star write-up, Siddhant Adlankha for Digital Spy calls Wicker 'a raunchy, off-kilter delight that still maintains the author's fairytale musings'.
Adapted from a short story by Ursula Wills-Jones, Wicker follows Olivia’s lonely Fisherwoman who commissions the local basket weaver to fashion her a husband out of wicker
Benjamin Lee for The Guardian praises Colman but calls out the depth of the film, writing that whilst the actress 'knows how to oscillate between broad comedy and heart-wrenching drama the film around her isn’t as adept'.
'Like the dream husband at its centre, Wicker looks the part but there’s nothing underneath.'
Colman and Skarsgård have been busy promoting the movie since it received its UK premiere at the London Film Festival last week.
Asked about the new film, Skarsgård told Graham Norton on Friday that he was initially as baffled as he expects audiences to be.
'When I was sent the script, I thought it was The Wicker Man, the horror movie, so I thought it was going to be scary. Turns out it was a comedy with lots of sex,' he said.
Olivia added: 'It is wonderful and magical and it has everything in it – including lots you don't expect.'
'We had a lot of fun making it and we struggled a lot not to laugh. We had lots of vigorous love making but luckily there were no splinters!'
Asked about his role, Skarsgård joked: 'There is a purity to his soul that felt very foreign to me. I realised it is hard playing a nice guy – it was definitely uncharted territory for me.'
Wicker opens in UK cinemas on October 30.