In 1998 New York City, Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) is a former Sotheby’s researcher, now married to the über-wealthy Dr. William Winthrop (Richard Coyle). While her former co-workers have been led to believe that Wally has hit the jackpot, the truth is, her marriage is sexless and physically abusive. Often alone, Wally finds refuge in a Sotheby’s showcase of items owned by Baltimore socialite Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) and King Edward VIII (James D’arcy), the couple whose scandalous affair rocked England to its core; causing her to give up a husband, and him to abdicate the throne in 1936. To Wally, the story of the King who gave up the throne for the woman he loved is the ultimate love story. Developing a relationship with cultured security guard Evgeni (Oscar Isaac), she spends countless hours admiring the items that will soon be auctioned off.
Of course, Wally is lost in a world of fantasy in order to cope with her troubles. The reality of the Wallis and Edward relationship was far from perfect. Through research, Wally learns that the couple experienced tremendous strife—Edward couldn’t understand why his Brother King George VI, wouldn’t take his calls. Depressed, Edward spent a lot of time moping about. At the same time, Wallis felt trapped, stripped of her own identity, and unable to leave him no matter the circumstance.
Visually stunning, W.E. is an ambitious and somewhat confusing film. While Madonna may have been better served by eliminating the modern story altogether, most of the film’s period details seem authentic. I’m still trying to figure out the point of having Wallis dance for the King to The Sex Pistols “Pretty Vacant.” Since this was the 1930’s, that scene is utterly laughable. While the casting of historical figures (King George V, Queen Mary, Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, etc.) is believable, everyone is rather muted. There isn’t any real sense of drama.
The film’s best scene comes at a formal dinner party when Wallis calls King Edward “David,” his semi-secret family name; of course she shouldn’t know it, and as a commoner, she certainly shouldn’t use it. You see, the King had ripped her fashionable dress by catching it under his chair, and Wallis reprimanded him for it. Pure blasphemy!
For the most part though, W.E. features a lot of clunky dialogue, and fails to master the back and forth pacing of the time shifts. Similar to the dialogue, they’re often clunky and difficult to track. More importantly, the parallels drawn between the lives of Wally and Wallis range from the sublime to the ridiculous, giving the entire film a fantastical tone. One can’t help but go back to the point that W.E. would have worked better as two separate entities, each story given its own space to expand its characters and themes.
W.E. comes to Blu-ray via a good looking 2.40:1, 1080p transfer. Graced with a rather washed out color palette, things never appear particularly vibrant. Instead, things have a rather gray, muted look, which fits well with the feeling of dread and sadness that hangs over the film. A few shots of green grass and crystal, blue ocean water add some vibrancy to the proceedings, but those instances are rare. Black levels are washed out, and skin tones look flat. Details are well defined and accurate, while digital anomalies such as haloing, banding, and blocking are virtually non-existent.
W.E.‘s DTS-HD MA 5.1 lossless soundtrack is very impressive. As one might expect from a film directed by Madonna, music carries easily throughout all five channels. Everything is well spaced and balanced, whether it be a single noise or a crowd of people. Dialogue is clean and clear throughout.
English SDH, and Spanish subtitles are available.
The special features are limited to the following:
- The Making of W.E. Featuring Madonna (SD, 22:36) Cast and crew discuss the film’s two stories, Wallis and Edward as they were in the film, vs. as they were in real life, the characters, the script, costumes and more. Somewhat informative, but don’t expect anything too deep here.
- Standard DVD
- Digital Copy
