SummaryMadonna's W.E. is a tale about the search for true love in the modern world, viewed through the prism of one of history's most fabled romances. The year is 1998, and Manhattan is abuzz with anticipation about the upcoming auction of the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. But the auction is far more than a diversion for Wally Wi...
SummaryMadonna's W.E. is a tale about the search for true love in the modern world, viewed through the prism of one of history's most fabled romances. The year is 1998, and Manhattan is abuzz with anticipation about the upcoming auction of the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. But the auction is far more than a diversion for Wally Wi...
W.E. is less outright bad than underwhelming; if the director were unknown, it would hardly deserve notice. Like her first film, the 2008 "Filth and Wisdom," it suffers from countless storytelling flaws.
Madonna ha sabido llevar a la gran pantalla esta gran historia. Una historia que contada siempre sale a relucir lo que este príncipe tuvo que renunciar. Ya que sólo estuvo como rey apenas unos meses. Buena película.
The upshot is that instead of a film about a love that conquered a king and nearly undid a kingdom, Madonna has come up with a female friendship movie, which would be fine if she weren't busy trying to prove her art-film bona fides.
Burdened with risible dialogue and weak performances, picture doesn't have much going for it apart from lavish production design and terrific, well-researched costumes -- and it's in focus, which is more than can be said for the script.
Certainly, W.E. is the work of a woman who apparently hasn't spent time with normal human beings in a while. But Madonna's anachronistic use of music is the least of her movie's problems. It's basic storytelling that stymies her.
Una película mal juzgada, es hermosa, se cuenta muy bien la Historia de amor entre estos 2 personajes, lo que hace un Rey por Amor , dejar hasta el torno por estar con la persona que ama.
Madonna’s second film as a director, after the little seen FILTH AND WISDOM (2008). W.E. is her much more ambitious venture commingles Wally (Cornish), a modern woman’s self-liberation from a dead water marriage and the scandalous love affair between American divorcée Wallis Simpson (Riseborough) and King Edward VIII (D’Arcy) which causes a constitutional crisis in the history.
read the rest of the review in my blog: google "cinema omnivore", thanks
W.E. is one of three biopics I have seen this year, after The Iron Lady and J Edgar. Of the three I think W.E. is probably the best, but all three tread the path of the mediocre. What W.E. gets right is Wallis Simpson, Riseborough is fantastic in the lead role and has great chemistry with James D'Arcy. The biggest problem with the film is the the second tier of the romance with Abbie Cornish's Wally Winthrop, though the romance picks up momentum around the one hour mark, it slows down the pace of the Wallis Simpson segments.
The script has high and low notes, the romance at times is reduced sappiness, but these are forgivable even when they are at there worst. What is probably the biggest weakness in W.E. is the often close up hand held camera shots. The occasional one works nicely, but these shots are put in far too often and take you out of the story. In most cases the camera work could have been more simplistic, it too often feels erratic which isn't good in the more tender moments of the film.
The music in W.E. is beautiful and the addition of "Masterpiece" in the credits is a lovely song to go side by side with the film. However sometimes the music is a little over powering, once again just a case of less is more. The much discussed and derided scene with Wallis dancing the Charleston with a tribesman to The Sex Pistols "pretty Vacant", I really liked. I felt the scene was a good way to show how frivolous the character could be, using the modern day Wally's imagination to keep the scene from feeling alien.
Undoubtedly the best part of W.E. is the costume and lighting. The attention to detail in this department is incredible. Every costume looks stunning and is meticulously put together down to the nearest diamond, and the lighting makes the landscapes almost feel like paintings it really is stunning.
All in all W.E. is a great attempt from Madonna to craft a stunning looking film, though the storytelling can be muddled and the film takes around 40 minutes to really get going, its doesn't completely take away from the overall film. Historical inaccuracies put aside would have made this film a 7, but not exploring the **** element could have made this so much more interesting. The negative reviews of this film aren't looking at it from fair perspective and anyone with half a brain can see though not amazing, W.E. is at least half decent and for a directors second film pretty damn good.
Madonna must return to the stage, because she understands pop music, but definitely not film, so many attempts and almost no hit, not worth wasting time with this movie.