‘W.E.’ a.k.a. That Madonna Movie No One Really Likes

There has been a lot of mixed buzz about Madonna‘s movie, W.E.. I thought it was pretty.

I wish that could be my review, but I feel I need to fill this space with words and opinions about Madge’s “masterpiece” about Wallis Simpson (see what I did there? That was a play on her Golden Globe winning song for the movie).

So who is Wallis Simpson? I tend to ask myself that everyday. Wallis (played by Andrea Riseborough) is the famous Baltimore divorcee who had an affair and then married Edward VIII (James D’Arcy), who later abdicated the throne. Apparently, it is one of history’s “greatest romance stories”. Almost as great as Loni and Burt.

The movie layers that historic story with a modern one about Wally (Abbie Cornish) and William Winthrop (Richard Coyle). She is having a hard time with her marriage and gets obsessed with te story of Wallis. The movie goes back and forth between the past and the present, and their lives start to parallel each other.

Visually, the movie succeeds. Madonna is really good at giving us a show, but all that pretty can’t hide the movie’s cracks; the main flaws being the sloppy transitions between the past and the present and the muddled parallel lives of Wally and Wallis. There even comes a point when Wally and Wallis actually interact in Wally’s imagination — which makes me think that she is on some sort of hallucinogenic. Also, what kind of name is Wally for a girl?

In any matter, the story of Wallis Simpson is a special one and it is very interesting — but it acts out better as a story on paper rather than one on the silver screen.

W.E. opens in theaters today