Movie review: 'W.E.' is bad for all of us

R (domestic violence, nudity, strong language); 118 min.

W.E., Madonna's second go at directing a feature film, leaves one wishing she'd find other creative outlets for those times when she's bored with the pop-star life.

What we have instead is an overwrought historical drama built around the storied romance of Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American for whom King Edward VIII gave up the British throne in 1936 to marry.

Co-written with her Truth or Dare collaborator Alek Keshishian, the movie gives Madonna an expansive platform to ponder the notion of great romantic love -- its possibility as well as its price. The contrivance is to create parallel stories -- a fragment of Wallis' (Andrea Riseborough) journey, followed by a slice of the life of Wally Winthrop (Abbie Cornish), a modern Manhattanite whose rocky road to love constantly echoes that of her namesake. It is a lot of back and forth and is tediously literal at first -- Wallis takes a bath, Wally takes a bath; Wallis is kicked by her first husband, ditto Wally. Then it just gets crazy, with Wallis periodically "materializing" for brief encounters with Wally.

Riseborough, a rising young British actress ( Happy-Go-Lucky, Made in Dagenham), does what she can, but too many of the lines are laughable. Cornish, so terrific as the object of Keats' poetic affection in 2009's Bright Star, has an even rougher go with the limp rag of Wally.

There is a moment late in the film when Wally is yet again pressing Wallis about something -- by this time the line between fantasy and reality has been completely lost -- when an impatient Wallis snaps back, "Get a life." I wasn't sure whether to applaud or sigh.

-- Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times