Underplayed Gems

W.E. (2011)

W.E. poster
Directed by
Madonna
Genre
drama film, romance film
Country
United Kingdom
Runtime
1h 59m
Rated
R
Rating
6.3 of 10 from 310 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
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How it feels

In 1998, a lonely New Yorker named Wally becomes obsessed with the love story of Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII. As she researches their life together, she finds that their romance was more troubled than the fairy tale she imagined. The film cuts between Wally's present-day story and the past story of Wallis and Edward.

bittersweetreflectivemelancholiccontrastingelegiacslow-pacedmelodramaticvisually stylized

What happens

W.E. (stylised W./E.) is a 2011 historical romantic drama film written and directed by Madonna and starring Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, Oscar Isaac, Richard Coyle, and James D'Arcy. The screenplay was co-written by Alek Keshishian, who previously worked with Madonna on her 1991 documentary Truth or Dare and two of her music videos. Although the film was panned by critics and was a box office bomb, it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. This marked Isaac's and Cornish's second film together after Sucker Punch. The film tells the story of two women separated by over six decades. In 1998, lonely New Yorker Wally Winthrop is obsessed with Edward VIII's abdication of the British throne so he could marry American Wallis Simpson. But Wally's research, including several visits to Sotheby's auction of the Windsor estate, reveals that the couple's life together was not as perfect as she thought. Traveling back and forth in time, W.E. intertwines Wally's journey of discovery in New York with the story of Wallis and Edward from the early days of their romance to the unraveling of their lives over the following decades. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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