W.E. are the initials of Wallis Simpson and Edward the VIII.
W.E. tells the story of two fragile but determined women – Wally Winthrop and Wallis Simpson – separated by more than six decades. In 1998, lonely New Yorker Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish) is obsessed with what she perceives as the ultimate love story: King Edward VIII’s abdication of the British throne for the woman he loved, American divorcée Wallis Simpson.
But Wally’s research, including several visits to the Sotheby’s auction of the Windsor Estate, reveals that the couple’s life together was not as perfect as she thought.
Weaving back and forth in time, W.E. intertwines Wally’s journey of discovery in New York with the story of Wallis (Andrea Riseborough) and Edward (James D’Arcy), from the glamorous early days of their romance to the slow unraveling of their lives in the decades that followed.
Also of note, Abbie Cornish, who plays Wally Winthrop in W.E., was responsible for breaking up the marriage of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe.
W.E., as expected, since it was directed by Madonna, who doesn’t realize she is the worstdirector in the world, and the term director is used lightly when referring to her as one, was a bomb as big as Hiroshima at the movie box office.
