Plot: The affair between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard.
Director: Madonna
Writers: Madonna (screenplay), Alek Keshishian (screenplay)
Stars: Abbie Cornish, James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough
Pretty Vacant
W.E. is not a good film. But it is one of this films that have so many fantastic elements in it that you can't really call it bad either. It's not good, it's not bad, but it's definitely not mediocre. It's a film you have to endure in order to see those great parts of it - it's like a trip to the museum where you are wandering around for hours, bored, unimpressed, puzzled, only occasionally seeing a gorgeous piece of art.
I imagine that while Madonna was working on that movie she spent her time reading history books about the affair between King Edward and Wallis Simpson, while listening to Sex Pistols and surrounding herself with the objects from the era. Too bad in her research she actually forgot to read about how to make a movie. W.E. has many things in it but the one thing that is always absent is the focus - the film is scattered and messy and Madonna makes a lot of puzzling choices when it comes both to the plot and the narrative of the picture.
