Hi! What are your initial thoughts on W.E., the movie Madonna made on Wallis and Edward?
Not great. I've read a version of the script (no idea if it's the final version or not) and there are a lot of things wrong with it.
1. The whole Julie & Julia thing. She totally rips off that movie. Julie & Julia is a movie that tells two stories: the story of Julia Child and the story of a modern woman named Julie who is inspired by Julia to start a cooking blog and take control of her life. W.E. is a movie that tells two stories: the story of Wallis Simpson and the story of a modern woman named Wally who is inspired by Wallis to cheat on her husband and take control of her life. I mean, seriously. She named the modern chick Wally! That's not even a real name!
2. Her characterization of Wallis and David isn't really right. Her version of Edward VIII is this sly womanizing alpha-male who talks like a '70's porno character. He's like the British Don Draper. That ain't accurate. And her Wallis doesn't have enough of a spine. It reminds me a lot of the Wallis and Edward movie with Joely Richardson and Stephen Campbell Moore. I think her David is based on one of her exes and not the real guy.
3. She makes Wallis into this ultra-enlightened woman who cares about the poor and parties with black people. I will defend Wallis against people who claim she was a Nazi and write her off as a racist, but Madonna needs to realize it was a different era. Don't fall into the trap of politically correct history!
4. She has the Queen Mum accusing Wallis and David of being Nazis. That's ridiculous! The Queen Mum was certainly not a fan of Wallis but she never believed anything like that of her. She might have accused them of behaving irresponsibly, but she knew them too well to believe they were Nazis.
5. A major plot point is a fake letter Wallis supposedly wrote to Aunt Bessie. Madonna must have made that letter up. In it Wallis whines about how everyone thinks she's a Nazi and complains about being married to David and having to stay with him. It's silly and makes no sense. The Nazi rumors didn't really take flight until after David died and several trash biographies were published into the '80's and early '90's. Wallis only regarded the rumors as similar to the ones about her being a Russian spy or a prostitute. I've never seen anything where she expressed her concern or even awareness of those stories, at least not until the '50's when people became aware that she and David's names showed up in Nazi documents.Wallis did sometimes complain about David, but it was always silly stuff like him being too whiny when he was sick or leaving his papers out everywhere. It' a bit of a stretch to suggest she didn't want him; I mean look how she reacted to his death.
6. Diana's death is a plot point in the modern story. That's just tacky.
7. There's one scene where David drugs everyone's drinks. Don't worry; it doesn't end in date rape but instead an extended dance sequence to a Sex Pistols song.
8. That guy who plays David is like 6'6" he's really really fucking tall.
9. The whole movie is really dark and depressing; don't think it's a comedy! No one gets what they want in the end.
10. Seriously she has Wallis like traveling through time to meet Wally and Wally gives her some gloves of hers Wally bought at the auction. No explanation is given and it makes no sense. I wish she'd actually explored the supernatural elements and made it like a ghost story or something, but even that wouldn't work because you can't give a ghost your gloves for her to take to the afterlife.
On the plus side, I heard the movie is like really pretty and stuff.
