W.E. (2011)
Average Rating: 4.3/10
Reviews Counted: 103
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 90
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 4.3/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 30
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.1/5
User Ratings: 4,312
My Rating
Movie Info
W.E. tells the story of two fragile but determined women - Wally Winthrop and Wallis Simpson - separated by more than six decades. In 1998, lonely New Yorker Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) is obsessed with what she perceives as the ultimate love story: King Edward's VIII's abdication of the British throne for the woman he loved, American divorcée Wallis Simpson. But Wally's research, including several visits to the Sotheby's auction of the Windsor Estate, reveals that the couple's life together
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Cast
-
Abbie Cornish
Wally Winthrop -
Andrea Riseborough
Wallis Simpson -
James D'Arcy
Edward, King Edward VII... -
Oscar Isaac
Evgeni -
Richard Coyle
William Winthrop -
David Harbour
Ernest -
James Fox
King George V -
Judy Parfitt
Queen Mary -
Haluk Bilginer
Al Fayed -
Geoffrey Palmer
Stanley Baldwin -
Natalie Dormer
Elizabeth -
Laurence Fox
Bertie -
Douglas Reith
Lord Brownlow -
Katie McGrath
Lady Thelma -
Christina Chong
Tenten -
Nick Smithers
Major Fruity Metcalfe -
Damien Thomas
George -
Liberty Ross
Connie Thaw -
Ryan Hayward
Win Spencer -
Charlotte Comer
Lady Alexandra -
Duane Henry
Dwayne/Security Guard -
Anna Skellern
Daphne -
Penny Downie
Dr. Vargas -
David Redden
Auctioneer -
Alberto Vasquez
Victor -
Nicole Harvey
Nicola -
Daniel Andre Pageon
Servant -
Hywel Morgan
Journalist -
Patricia Stark
Newscaster -
Annabelle Wallis
Arabella Green -
Audrey Brisson
Marie -
Emily Denniston
Sotheby's Intern -
Suzanne Bertish
Lady Cunard -
Ben Willbond
Equerry -
Leigh Zimmerman
East Side Woman -
David Collins
Male Guest -
Linda Glick
Woman Getting Taxi -
Gil Cohen Allono
Hotel Clerk -
Stephen Jones
Royal Milliner -
James McNeill
Sotheby's Staffer -
Lisa Gherari
Secretary -
Vincent Montuel
Waiter
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W.E. Trailer & Photos
All Critics (103) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (14) | Rotten (90) | DVD (5)
With "W.E." Madonna gorges on glamour, architectural porn and haute couture but starves the mind.
Top CriticThe film is stylishly shot. And, in weaving the stories of Wally and Wallis, Madonna trusts viewers to move from mood to mood, era to era without overexplanation, the way music-video editing long ago trained us to.
A movie more concerned with how things look than how they feel.
The production is nice looking, and telling the Edward-and-Wallis story from her side is an interesting idea, but it's one that Madonna simply can't pull off here.
A movie that's less about people than the fetishistic obsession with style.
"W.E." is not awful. It looks quite nice at times, and Riseborough delivers an exquisite if overdrawn performance as Wallis.
It may not be laughably awful - like her and Ritchie's Swept Away - it's something far worse...boring.
Is this the end of Madonna as a movie maker, a case of her always ambitious reach exceeding her limited grasp?
W.E. is staggeringly misjudged, infuriatingly revisionist, blindingly stupid and stomach evacuatingly terrible.
Kudos to Madonna for ultimately producing a celluloid smorgasbord that contains the caloric content of a couple of Snackwell's cookies.
Impossible to recommend to anyone not already fascinated with the British royal family, or at least jonesing for a companion piece to The King's Speech.
Truth be told, the film isn't THAT bad, and if it had been directed by an unknown rather than a controversial media icon, it might have been more charitably dismissed as an ambitious failure.
Melodramatic to be sure, and arty camp to boot - W.E. succeeds in equal part ennui and emotion. Like it, loathe it or lump it altogether, one thing fashionistas will not want to fast forward through is the making-of featurette.
not a completely horrible film ...there's one sequence - an anachronistic and jarring one in which Wallis Simpson ... dances with a Masai tribesman to the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant" - that I think indicates that Madge has real potential as a director.
An ambitiously conceived and beautifully designed and costumed but disjointed work; each scene is impressive on its own, but the movie -- like its heroines? -- lacks a coherent identity.
Madonna doesn't appear in W.E. but her artistic sensibilities are on display at every turn.
Tonally and emotionally all over the map, Madonna wants to celebrate Wallis' and Edward's martini-shaking high living while also wallowing in her hidden pain.
Hear us out, Madge: Next time, go with what you know.
Enough already with the famous-equals-feminist school of female icons - it's not enough to simply dress well.
The coda plays like one long and petulant foot stomp about sacrifice and due recognition of said sacrifice, and in that, too, it's impossible not to tease the thread back to its maker, striking a pose as misunderstood icon.
It's hard to hate a movie that escorts us to such lovely locales, but instead of marking the territory as her own, Madonna has directed a potentially provocative story like a virgin.
We can't take overly seriously the woes of folks whose silverware costs more than most people's homes, at least not as presented here, with their wealth depicted as a kind of moral state.
Audience Reviews for W.E.
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
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- Wallis Simpson: You have no idea how hard it is to live out the greatest love romance of the century. And now I will have to be with him always and always and always.
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- Wallis Simpson: Attractive is just a polite way of saying you've done the best with what you've got. All I could hope to do was dress the best and if everyone turned to look at me when I walked into the room, well, I knew my husband would be happy.
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- Wallis Simpson: Darling, they can't hurt you unless you let them.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| W.E. | 4 months ago | 0 |
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Foreign Titles
- W.E. (DE)
- W.E. (UK)
This is one of the worst films I've seen in a long time. Madonna is a horrid director. There is absolutely no restraint, subtlety, or character development. It's just bad, bad, bad.
But let's try to take the film on its own terms. The thesis is that history remembers Edward's abdication of the throne and lauds or judges him based on what he gave up for Wallis Simpson. But, the film wonders, what about what she gave up for him? Well, what did she give up? This film doesn't answer its own question. Some may judge Simpson as a home-wrecker, but the most accurate reading of history judges British royal mores, not the actors. And because Madonna has no feeling for British customs, we don't get to see these social pressures in action.
And I still have no idea how the modern day plot informs the British plot.
Overall, anyone with any taste should see any other film, maybe The King's Speech, which overlaps W.E..