W.E.

W.E.
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMadonna
Written byMadonna
Alek Keshishian
Produced byMadonna
Kris Thykier
Starring
CinematographyHagen Bogdanski
Edited byDanny B. Tull
Music byAbel Korzeniowski
Production
companies
Semtex Films
IM Global
Distributed byStudioCanal (United Kingdom)
The Weinstein Company (United States)
Release dates
  • September 1, 2011 (2011-09-01) (Venice)
  • December 9, 2011 (2011-12-09) (United States)
  • January 20, 2012 (2012-01-20) (United Kingdom)
Running time
119 minutes
Countries
  • United Kingdom
  • United States
Languages
  • English
  • French
Budget£11 million ($17.62 million)
Box office$2 million

W.E. (stylised W./E.) is a 2011 historical romantic drama film written and directed by Madonna and starring Abbie Cornish, Andrea Riseborough, Oscar Isaac, Richard Coyle, and James D'Arcy. The screenplay was co-written by Alek Keshishian, who previously worked with Madonna on her 1991 documentary Truth or Dare and two of her music videos. Although the film was panned by critics and was a box office bomb, it received an Academy Award nomination for Best Costume Design. This marked Isaac's and Cornish's second film together after Sucker Punch.

The film tells the story of two women separated by over six decades. In 1998, lonely New Yorker Wally Winthrop is obsessed with Edward VIII's abdication of the British throne so he could marry American Wallis Simpson. But Wally's research, including several visits to Sotheby's auction of the Windsor estate, reveals that the couple's life together was not as perfect as she thought. Traveling back and forth in time, W.E. intertwines Wally's journey of discovery in New York with the story of Wallis and Edward from the early days of their romance to the unraveling of their lives over the following decades.