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It is a performances centric movie

A different way of telling a story

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Good acting, beautiful images, interesting story, flawless wardrobe. Shame the script doesn't always succeed in telling two stories at the same time. Truth is if this movie hadn't been directed by Madonna it would've been way better rated.

Lonely Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) feels neglected by her often-absent doctor husband William Winthrop (Richard Coyle). Sotheby's is auctioning off the Windsor Estate including his abdication desk. She falls in love with their romance. She's desperate to have a baby and tries IVF. In flashbacks and in daydreams, King Edward VIII (James D'Arcy) and his love American divorcée Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) come to life.This Madonna project is beautifully costumed. She was probably meticulous with the designs and costumes. Her directing and writing prowess is another matter. The historical romance lacks a certain heat. It does have an upperclass comfortableness but it feels cold. With his abdication and their rumored Nazi connection, there should plenty of drama to work with. Madonna is stuck on their romance for a little too long and the drama is bled out of it. The performances of the royals are cold. The Nazi connections are papered over as Madonna is obviously making it a case of victim of falsehoods. It's fine to have a point of view but one has to pull it off. As for Abbie Cornish, her role has some big melodramatic moves. Overall, Madonna may have bit off more than she could chew.

"W./E." opens with a depressed Manhattan house-wife in the 90s and Wallis Simpson marrying a husband in the 1920s. It's hard to say which era we were in since the film cut back in forth through time at a dizzying rate. The protagonist (if that's what she's supposed to be) is Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) named after the infamous Wally Simpson and living in a time she doesn't belong in.Her husband comes straight from the men's club-era husband of the 1950s where he makes the money and she just has to accept his beatings. She seems to also think that they're living in the 1950s and she unhappily resigns herself to living the role of his wife. As if women nowadays have no other options. It's a very backwards place to start a film from.The beginning is enough to make anybody sick with the rapid-fire cuts all over the place between the two eras, shaky camera work, and the modern-era Wally putting herself in ridiculously disastrous positions. The romanticists out there can probably get past that because the film will eventually get to the historic love affair between Wallis Simpson (Andrea Riseborough) and King Edward VIII (James D'Arcy). So well acted and reasonably accurate that their story is entertaining and informative.The film also eventually does a better job with splicing the two stories together. We actually spend full scenes in each era and then making some timely edits. The modern Wally is still a pretty insufferable protagonist but she may find love after all; however, the reveal of Wallis Simpson's life after marriage number 3 and British exile shows that the modern Wally picked a hero with very little to look up to.

If you can understand why people in the 1930's or 1940's would be dancing or listening to music not produced until the 1970's and 80's then this is the film for you. I made no sense of any of the first 25mins, and turned it off after that. it was so painful i could not sit through much more than that and had to turn it off. It has no details about wallis simpson that i can't find on wikipedia.I just don't understand why Madonna even attempted this, She should stick to singing and leave the documentary stuff to the experts. bad enough she ruined evita for me.