Film Review: You’ll Love Wallis Simpson... Just Not the Film
As Madonna dips her toe into the world of directing, Declan Harvey shares his take on ‘W.E.’
14 Jan 2012, 19:43
Wallis & Edward
For her directorial debut Madonna has chosen a cracker of a story. The relationship between Wallis Simpson and ‘David’ (the Prince of Wales who would become Edward VIII) is as dramatic a tale as any writer could possible invent: love, lust, debauchery, drug-taking, Nazis and royalty all wrapped up in a pretty constitutional-crisis bow.
Why then Madge thought the woes of a modern-day well-heeled Manhattan doctor’s wife (who is attempting IVF behind her husband’s back) would add extra sparkle is beyond me.
The plot, in essence, hangs on Wally Winthrop, the aforementioned New Yorker. Named after the Duchess, Wally is deeply unfulfilled having given up a career at Sotheby’s to be the perfect missus. However her trophy husband is violent and unable, it seems, to keep his zipper closed. But Wally is “so lucky” according to her pals.
As the story gets up and running we are without warning transported back a hundred years to see a young Wallis Simpson being beaten by her first husband in a dreary Shanghai apartment. The attack induces a miscarriage – she would never get pregnant again.
And so we ping-pong between the two women’s lives.
Wally spends her days perusing her old haunt, the Sotheby’s show room, ahead of an auction that sees the Duke and Duchess’ clothing, furniture and jewellery flogged off. All the while an amorous Russian security guard, played by dreamy-eyed Oscar Isaac, tries (and eventually succeeds) to have his way with her. Boring.
Oh, but wait, we’re back with Wallis and David. Yay! The world they inhabit is a joy to watch. Crude humour is mixed with elegant manners to make a cocktail of sophisticated naughtiness. There are dinner parties, there’s dancing and an array of international destinations...how lovely.
Andrea Riseborough is nothing short of fabulous as Wallis. She glitters perfectly as the film shows her entering and entertaining London’s high-society. She is sophisticated, cheeky, mature, sexy, kind and sassy. I want to be in her gang, however I’m dragged kicking and screaming back to Manhattan 2011 to watch weary-Wally‘s infatuation with Wallis develop.
As Wally, Abbie Cornish personifies the dullness of her script perfectly, but there’s a fine turn from James D’Arcy as the King who surrendered it all for love. Behind-the-scenes anecdotes reveal D’Arcy learned to play the bag-pipes for the role only to have his musical endeavours end up on the cutting room floor.
It’s quite clear the director’s background is in music as the soundtrack is clever and almost ever-present. There is a brave mix of the old and new. Charleston and Brit-pop blend seamlessly with an original score by Abel Korzeniowski. It works tremendously. But expect to see the odd filmic cliché. Madonna has not broken new ground with a martini glass smashing off a marble fire place in a fit of rage or a slow motion fall to the ground after a punch has landed on a cheek. That said it’s all handsome enough. In addition I give full marks for costume design. It’s not something I pay much heed to normally but it’s well worth noticing in this film, they are beautiful.
Back to the plot and our obsessive modern day princess wangles a meeting with Harrods boss Mohammed Fayed – he’s got the keys to a large collection of private letters in the hand of Mrs Simpson. They reveal more extraordinary, compelling and unacknowledged details of the couple’s life: her feelings of inadequacy over not having children, her isolation and loneliness in exile... I wanted to know more. But I wanted Wallis to show me - not watch some Wally fawning all over it.
I suspect we’re expected to compare generations and ask ourselves how we treat public figures today. Ask ourselves how much did Dodi (“the foreigner”) surrender for Diana, for example. American’s can question how they treat their royalty i.e. Fifth Avenue’s finest.
We are also led to wonder about fulfilment. Weirdly Madonna appears convinced the only route to happiness is having children. Live the high-life and never get round to having kids? Well, you risk ending up empty, a little pathetic and lonely like the Duchess of Windsor. But turn your back on worldly possessions and settle down with a litter of brats – why, that’s the way to eternal contentment... just ask Wally Winthrop. Humph.
It’s all a bit rich coming from the Material Girl! I didn’t want to be hit over the head with a moral cleaver; I wanted to enjoy the story.
I left the screening having fallen in love with a woman vilified by history. Far from a fortune hunter, Mrs Simpson seems to have been a bright, charismatic fun-time girl and someone who the King insisted stayed by his side. He was a moth to her well dressed and witty flame, and frankly I’d have given up the crown for her too, I suspect.
In short, half this film could be cut - the modern half. The production team should have trusted that the very British conundrum of a monarch marrying an American divorcee is fodder enough for a great film. It would naturally have appealed to both sides of the Atlantic but, alas, the director and screenwriters got wrapped up in a message.
I’m giving W.E. (for Wallis and Edward, by the way) two-and-a-half stars. If they had cut the 50% of new nonsense it could have been a five star phenomenon. But they didn’t. Pity mind.
W.E. will be in cinema’s from January 20th, 2012.
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