W.E. is not as bad as you’ve heard and not as good as you’d hope.
It helps to have low, low expectations before seeing “W.E.” (as I did, based on one of the lowest Rotten Tomatoes scores in recent memory) but it helps even more to know the historical background of King Edward VIII who abdicated his throne in order to marry Wallis Simpson, the twice divorced American woman who stole his heart and his title—the couple thereafter became the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Why is it important to know this, even if you just do a quickie “Wiki”search in the theater before the lights go down? Because, as a storyteller, director and co-screenwriter Madonna, is all sizzle and no steak. She gives us beautiful images and beautiful people, but her narrative is so lacking, in terms of set-up,that it’s almost as if she assumes that you’ll remember this bit about W.E. (as in “Wallis and Edward”) from last year’s “The King’s Speech,” in which it was more of a “B story.”
That well known and true story is intercut with a fictional New Yorker named Wally Winthrop ( a wide-eyed Abbie Cornish) who is infatuated with her namesake from 60 years earlier. Wally stalks the halls of Sotheby’s auction house, where artifacts from the famed couple are up for bid. Again, if you don’t know the true story going in, the back and forth cutting could be become confusing and off-putting. I didn’t mind it much, although the cuts are too frequent, not motivated by story, and really don’t serve much of a purpose, since we are never told why modern day Wally is so taken with 1930’s Wallace. Why? What do they really have in common, apart from a few superficial elements?
Abbie Cornish’s character is so close to being interesting, that it’s frustrating—she’s fanciful and tragic; her rich and mean husband allows us to like her and forgive her when she hooks up with a handsome security guard from Sotheby’s. And her fantasies of the couple prove that she’s a thinker—even if she may be a tad nutty. But, mostly she is remote—and so’s the movie. There’s a distance that keeps us from being able to invest.
What I did enjoy was the unabashed “Fashion Porn.” The incredible wardrobe is filmed with an almost fetishistic lens. The period costumes are visual wonders. Madonna, with her own lifetime of striking the pose, knows exactly what she wants from her directors of lighting and photography.
They say that every picture tells a story, but Madonna took that concept too literally. The movie looks so glam and gorgeous that you could watch it with the sound off and enjoy it on that level.
In fact—that’s not a bad idea.
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