W.E. | Little White Lies

W.E.

20 Jan 2012 / Released: 20 Jan 2012

Two people in formal evening attire - man in tuxedo, woman in ornate dress - seated in a dim setting.
Two people in formal evening attire - man in tuxedo, woman in ornate dress - seated in a dim setting.
3

Anticipation.

Madge takes on a sizzling 20th century love scandal.

1

Enjoyment.

Laughably feeble portrait of a complex romance.

1

In Retrospect.

Maddeningly incompetent.

Madonna’s lav­ish retelling of a 20th cen­tu­ry scan­dal is lit­tle more than a kitsch van­i­ty project.

This pris­sy, self-impor­tant com­pan­ion piece to The King’s Speech tells part of the true sto­ry of Wal­lis Simp­son (Andrea Rise­bor­ough), the brassy Bal­ti­more socialite who threw a span­ner in the British monar­chy by elop­ing with King Edward VIII (a dash­ing James D’Arcy) in the late 30s.

His abdi­ca­tion and her pub­lic vil­i­fi­ca­tion were the hot gos­sip of the time, but Madon­na (mak­ing her sec­ond out­ing as co-writer/di­rec­tor) isn’t fussed about con­tex­tu­al­is­ing the socio-polit­i­cal rip­ples of their scan­dalous affair. Instead, she hot­foots it to the mid 90s, where a fic­tion­al Man­hat­tan house­wife named Wal­ly (Abbie Cor­nish) finds a way out of her abu­sive domes­tic bell jar cour­tesy of an ivory-tin­kling Russ­ian secu­ri­ty guard (Oscar Isaac).

This inces­sant to-and-fro nar­ra­tive tier­ing is impru­dent, not least because Wally’s plight has a great deal more dra­mat­ic mer­it than that of her cold, razor-taloned coun­ter­part. In escap­ing her husband’s mali­cious clutch­es Wal­ly shows con­sid­er­able guts. By com­par­i­son Wal­lis’ actions seem entire­ly con­niv­ing and self­ish (although they are val­i­dat­ed, some­what clum­si­ly, by flash­backs of her own domes­tic ago­nies). It’s all in the name of love, of course, but a love we nev­er made to invest in.

You would be for­giv­en for expect­ing that an infa­mous 20th cen­tu­ry love sto­ry that rocked an empire might make for com­pelling cin­e­ma. But the mad­den­ing extent of Madonna’s blun­der­ing is such that you won’t care whether Wal­lis and Edward’s romance sinks or swims. In fact, dur­ing one sick­ly beach­side ren­dez-vous you’ll be pray­ing for an unsea­son­ably strong tide to roar in and drag the whole shod­dy mess under.

Madonna’s poor­ly received direc­to­r­i­al debut, 2008’s Filth and Wis­dom, was large­ly ignored, but there’s no avoid­ing this tri­umphant wet guff, such is its pun­gance and so eye-sting­ing its impact. As far as her film career is con­cerned, this is a real step back – and that’s say­ing something.

Of its many short­com­ings, per­haps the most insult­ing thing about W.E. is its arro­gance. But this seri­ous film, laden with look at me’ visu­als – grainy close-ups, exces­sive soft focus – and reek­ing of van­i­ty project ego­tism, is only ren­dered laugh­able by its kitschy sycophancy.

You might like

Accessibility Settings

Text

Applies the Open Dyslexic font, designed to improve readability for individuals with dyslexia.

Applies a more readable font throughout the website, improving readability.

Underlines links throughout the website, making them easier to distinguish.

Adjusts the font size for improved readability.

Visuals

Reduces animations and disables autoplaying videos across the website, reducing distractions and improving focus.

Reduces the colour saturation throughout the website to create a more soothing visual experience.

Increases the contrast of elements on the website, making text and interface elements easier to distinguish.