British Actress Blog

W.E. (2011)

Score: 9/10

Director: Madonna

Stars: Abbie Cornish, James D'Arcy, Andrea Riseborough, Oscar Isaac, Natalie Dormer, Katie McGrath.

Synopsis: The story of the love affair between King Edward VIII of England and American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and a modern romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard.

Review: A young married woman named Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish ) is researching the love affair between King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. She does this as a way of escaping the realities of her own abusive relationship. As she continues to learn more about the royal couple, she is befriended by a brave young suitor.

Two of my favorite actresses are in this film. The beautiful and talented Natalie Dormer always plays royalty perfectly and better than any of her other roles. When she plays the higher roles like in Games of Thrones and this film, she totally executes the performance like very few can. The same can be said of one of our most viral actresses Katie McGrath. She plays Morgana Pendragon like a true queen and when she performs her role in this film she does so with the highest style and class. It’s a refreshing breath of fresh air to see the perfect casting in this movie. There are so many things this film got right including casting Oscar Isaac who played in the perfect film Agora (2009) with Rachel Weisz and the legendary film, Ex Machina (2014) with Alicia Vikander.

The film focuses on the concept of fantasy. The main protagonist fantasizes about the royal couple and sees herself as the female in the relationship. Only when she finally learns the whole story of the couple does she snap out of her delusion and comes back into reality with the lessons learned that she can build her own life and that she does not have to take anything from anyone that she does not want. This leads her to creating not only a new life for herself but new life in a procreative sense. She lets the past die and walks forward in life towards her own future no longer looking back at someone else’s past.

The cinematography is perfect. The film could have the color and contrast “pop” a little more, besides that, the lighting, wardrobe, backgrounds, set dressing, and musical score are all perfect. The only thing I didn’t like about the film are the domestic abuse scenes. They are disturbing and take you out of the movie. They tend to look real and leave a really bad taste in your mouth after seeing them. Most people want the watch a movie so that they can escape from reality into Hollywood’s fantasy world, instead this film puts reality all up in your face which is not good. I understand that it was a critical part of the main protagonists story but we the audience watch films for entertainment, so in some way domestic abuse becomes entertainment by proxy, which kind of bothers me. The film is very beautiful and if the violent scenes do not bother you I recommend you give the movie watch if you’re into classy, vintage, and royal imagery. This is a well above average film, almost perfect.

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More Films.

Cinderella (2015)

The King’s Speech (2010)

Suffragette (2015)

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

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