REVIEWS W.E. REVIEWED BY MARKADAMS


Madonna heads back behind the camera for W.E., an elegantly woven story linking a modern New Yorker’s desire for true love with the passionate relationship between American Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII. It is a beautifully staged film punctuated with nuggets of charm and style and dominated by a majestic performance by ris- ing star Andrea Riseborough as Wallis. Riseborough — a bewitching UK actress who


has been threatening to grasp stardom for a few years now — is quite brilliant as the chic American Mrs Simpson who entranced the British king in the 1930s. In a film that is at times too busy and multi-layered for its own good, she is the charis- matic core and gives W.E. an energy lacking from the other parts of the story. The film may be a tough sell to those unaware


of the famous love affair, and though the relation- ship was touched on in The King’s Speech, W.E. does not have that film’s easy appeal for older audiences looking for more royal romance. Instead Madonna aims high as she seeks to tackle love, celebrity, fame, abuse and disappointment, often hitting her targets — and sometimes not — but always offering up images that are beautifully shot and staged. It is 1988, and stylish and elegant Wally Win-


throp (Australian actress Abbie Cornish sporting dark black hair to heighten her association to Wal- lis) is caught in an empty marriage with doctor William (Coyle). She seeks escape in regular visits to Sotheby’s auction house in New York, which is displaying items from the estate of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. She finds herself increasingly transfixed by


these artifacts from the Windsors’ lives — whether it be clothes, furniture, jewellery or images — and clings to their appearance of the perfect love affair as a way of hoping her relationship will work. When her husband becomes abusive, she turns to a hunky Russian security guard who offers her compassion and affection. Her story is set alongside that of Wallis and


King Edward VIII (James D’Arcy in an impressive performance) dwelling briefly on Wallis’ first mar- riage — to an abusive man — before detailing the moment she first met the soon-to-be king while still married to her second husband.


Wallis is a strong and charismatic woman —


also great at dancing, a beautiful dresser and mixer of top-notch cocktails — and in this peach of a role, Riseborough is sheer perfection. Not only does she look like the real Wallis, but she elegantly combines ambition, compassion, humour and fear, as Wallis finds herself on a roll- ercoaster ride as parts of English society take against her when Edward abdicates and the cou- ple is forced to live overseas. The split-story device works pretty well in the


first half of the film, but as Wally’s story heads off into melodrama, things become clumsy at times. The final section that sees Wally fly to Paris to try to read Wallis’ private correspondence bogs down the story rather than taking it to its natural conclu- sion. It is a device for Wally to learn Wallis was never as happy and content as she had imagined, but it would have perhaps been better integrated in a different fashion. Abbie Cornish has perhaps the most difficult


n 14 Screen International at the Toronto Film Festival September 9, 2011


role. Her Wally (unfortunate name) is elegant and beautiful and spends a good deal of time in her best slinky underwear, trying to entrance her hubby. But she is given little to say and flies close to being bland when she should be intriguing. Cornish can do sad and soulful extremely well, but much of the film features scenes of her wandering around wistfully prior to another flashback dwell- ing on Wallis and Edward. Where Madonna does get it spot-on is in terms


of costume, style and production design. It is a beautiful film and often a visual treat. She also cannot resist a few unusual musical moments that help give the film a needed sense of quirki- ness and drive. W.E. is a film that will have its detractors — but


Madonna is used to criticism — and while cer- tainly not perfect (and could be easily trimmed) it does have delightful and memorable moments… and in Andrea Riseborough it has a mesmerising central performance.


GALA


UK. 2011. 118mins Director Madonna Production companies Semtex Films, IM Global International sales IM Global, www. imglobalfilm.com Producers Madonna, Kris Thykier Executive producers Scott Franklin, Donna Gigliotti, Harvey Weinstein Co-producers Colin Vaines, Sara Zambreno Screenplay Madonna, Alek Keshishian Cinematography Hagen Bogdanski Editor Danny B Tull Production designer Martin Childs Music Abel Korzeniowski Main cast Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, James D’Arcy, Oscar Isaac, Richard Coyle, David Harbour, James Fox, Judy Parfitt, Haluk Bilginer, Geoffrey Palmer


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