Everybody has a view about Wallis Simpson, the American divorcee who caused the abdication of King Edward VIII. Americans, in particular, think of her as less culpable than the British. "No one ever asks what she gave up" is the tacit refrain of Madonna's well upholstered but historically doubtful movie.
Just as Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady leaves out political analysis in her portrait of Margaret Thatcher, so Madonna smoothes over Wallis's sympathy for Nazi Germany and forgets to show how determined she was to catch a man who would be king.
Instead we get a sympathetic view of the lady in question, as if from one admiring style icon to another. It is told through a contemporary story of an unhappily married society wife, Wally (Abbie Cornish), who becomes obsessed with Wallis as her possessions are being auctioned in 1998. Her husband beats her up for spending too much at the auction but the obsession, if not her marriage, continues.
Thereafter, the two women's stories run in tandem, with Andrea Riseborough's Wallis providing a steadily solid centre. It's a performance of considerable skill.
W.E. is at least an improvement on Madonna's Filth and Wisdom. It is smartly shot by cinematographer Hagen Bogdanski and luxuriantly caparisoned by production designer Martin Childs and costume designer Arianne Phillips. There is also a more than able performance from James D'Arcy as Edward and an experienced supporting cast. But, as written by Madonna and Alek Keshishian, it never sounds as good as it looks.
The detail is splendid visually, if at times tricksy - as if the director wants to make her mark. But there's too much brittle chatter and even Wallis's lonely old age in France can't really stir us, though her final dance in front of the dying Edward certainly ought to. In essence, there's no soul to this film, just a feeling that we are being manipulated into agreeing with Madonna's view.
W.E.
