W.E. (2011)

The affair between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson, and a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard. [imdb]

Nominated for 1 Oscar:


Best Costume Design

Madonna made a little movie about a controversial couple (I would say controversial not because he was the future king and she was a married woman, but because of the long debate if or if not they were Nazi sympathizers) and the movie failed. 

The biggest problem is the screenplay, which is filled with uninspired choices: the present-day story shouldn't be there at all I think, the film is 30 minutes too long, and small details fail big time: the visions that Abbie Cornish's character has go from uninspired to ridiculous; the fact that 76 year old Wallis would dance a twist for the dying husband is also a terrible idea. :) Mostly, one poor choice after the other. 

The directing is all over the place, and Madonna is clearly trying to copy what Tom Ford did with A Single Man, except... you know... he proved talent. She doesn't. But it's not all messy and it's never horribly bad. The technical aspects are good, with the Art Direction and the Costume Design as outstanding elements; I believe it should've actually won Costume Design, because they are quite memorable. 

Andrea Riseborough is the only one giving a good performance, as Wallis Simpson; every time she returned to the screen I had a glimpse of hope the movie might get better. She is right for the part and had the movie been written/directed by someone who actually knew what he was doing, I'm sure we would've had an Oscar talk about it.

My rating for the film: 4.5/10. It's boring; only for die hard Oscar fans.