Movies: W.E.

Life is very often the choice between two exclusive alternatives. If you go to place A you can not go to place B. The movie ".W.E." (directed by Madonna imdb.com) deals with such a choice. It`s about King Edward VIII of England. In 1936 the monarch choose to sacrifice his crown in order to marry the American divorcee Wallis Simpson, who wasn`t accepted by British protocol.

Madonna showed her ambitions to become an even more acclaimed artist. The pop icon (and her script writing partner Alek Keshishian) follow the fashion, which mingles a historical plot with a contemporary story, now shown in many movies.

The flick combines the story of Edward & Wallis with a contemporary tale of an American woman named Wally, set mostly in Manhattan 1998. This woman is obsessed with the story of Wallis, who appears in her fantasies and influences her life, while simultaneously suffering an abusive drunk husband and then starting a romance with a Russian security man.

The conjunction of both - very different - plots didn`t really work for me, but I found the flick entertaining anyway. I especially enjoyed the nostalgic  glances into the early 20th century made possible by the work of Huw Arthur (art direction) and Arianne Philips (costume design).  The flick also benefitted a lot from the exquisite cinematography by Hagen Bogdanski. Furthermore, I had fun spotting the life of the highbrow British aristocrats and the travails of their servants, who had to follow a strict ritual by protocol and acted sometimes like robots.

"W.E." is a somewhat entertaining play about ambitions, romance and the sacrifices created by them.