W.E.

United Kingdom 2012, 119 mins
Director: Madonna
Starring: Abbie Cornish, Oscar Isaac, James D'Arcy, Andrea Riseborough

Synopsis

Madonna's W.E. tells the bittersweet ballad of feisty Baltimore socialite Wallis Simpson (Riseborough, BRIGHTON ROCK) and her lover Prince Edward (D'Arcy), first in line to the British throne.

In glamorous pre-war London, fleeing a series of failed marriages, Wallis finds herself in the arms of the man who would be king of the British Empire. Her divorce not yet final and his succession to the throne imminent, their affair spawns a global scandal that engulfs the monarchy.

His abdication would prove the ultimate romantic gesture, and Madonna beautifully captures the poignancy and emotional complexity of their personal drama intertwined with the political turmoil. The story is echoed in a present-day narrative about a lovelorn New Yorker named Wally Winthrop (Cornish), a married woman entangled in a love affair with a Russian security guard.