The fairy tale “Wicker” played to a hot crowd at the Eccles on Saturday, where the world premiere of the magical fable earned two standing ovations — one when the credits rolled, and another when the cast and filmmakers took the stage.
Based on “The Wicker Husband” by Ursula Wills-Jones, the film is the latest effort from “Save Yourselves!” writers/directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson and stars Olivia Colman as a village outsider who asks the local basketmaker to make her a husband.
The result is a towering and, yes, incredibly hot Alexander Skarsgard, covered in stunning practical prosthetics courtesy of Weta Workshop. For anyone who thought there was too little of Scarecrow Jonathan Bailey in “Wicked: For Good,” “Wicker” is the film for you.
“You would not believe you could make Alexander Skarsgard hotter than he is, but yeah. People are gonna have weird dreams,” Colman told TheWrap on Friday during an interview ahead of the film’s premiere.
The hotness of Skarsgard’s wicker man is the point — his doting and caring sensibility mixed with his good-looks and handiness drives the patriarchal town nuts, as his relationship with Colman’s character upends their way of life. There are parallels, too, to the popularity of steamy romance novels among married women — Skarsgard’s character is quite literally a dream come true.
But the film, which Fischer and Wilson very much stage as a fairy tale, goes to emotional depths as well, which no doubt led to those standing ovations. When Colman took the stage to the loud applause, she was visibly moved, wiping away tears.
“Wicker” marked one of a few films to earn standing ovations on the first weekend of Sundance. Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” got a roaring Standing O when she took the Eccles stage after the film played huge, moving her to tears. The Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan-led “Josephine” also got audience members on their feet, as did the premiere of “If I Go Will They Miss Me,” starring Danielle Brooks, at the Library theater.
Catch up on all of our Sundance coverage here.
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