W.E.
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: December 9, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
37
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
3
Mixed:
20
Negative:
9
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneDec 12, 2011
W.E.'s is a kind of dynamic pleasure that allows for non-shameful identification with the feminine and a fantasy of becoming what we see. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertFeb 8, 2012
There is little human interest or excitement. It isn't written that way. The music and the dialogue seem curiously even and muted, and there aren't the kinds of drama we expect in a biopic. Everyone is too restrained and discreet to expose themselves that way. Read full review
63
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 3, 2012
This jagged blob of a movie features a solo dance in the 1930s scored to the Sex Pistols' "Pretty Vacant," several scenes of a rich Manhattan woman chatting with the ghost of Wallis Simpson and a Sotheby's auction that draws a crowd reaction of the kind associated with "Family Feud." Yet I found the movie fascinating. Except for the boring bits. Read full review
60
Chicago ReaderJ.R. JonesFeb 9, 2012
The auction makes for a pretty good hinge between the two narratives and, more importantly, allows Madonna to indulge her fetish for fine English things. Read full review
60
EmpireDamon WiseJan 16, 2012
An uneven study of a notorious love story, raised by some superb performances and nuances, but brought down by awkward direction. Read full review
58
IndieWireEric KohnDec 7, 2011
W.E. is less outright bad than underwhelming; if the director were unknown, it would hardly deserve notice. Like her first film, the 2008 "Filth and Wisdom," it suffers from countless storytelling flaws. Read full review
55
MovielineStephanie ZacharekDec 8, 2011
W.E. is actually two intertwining stories - or maybe, more accurately, two stories clumsily rubbing against each other in an awkward attempt to set off a spark. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsMar 16, 2012
It's hard to hate a movie that escorts us to such lovely locales, but instead of marking the territory as her own, Madonna has directed a potentially provocative story like a virgin. Read full review
50
Portland OregonianShawn LevyMar 15, 2012
The nearest thing to W. E. is Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette," which tried to make a sympathetic victim of another of history's most notorious royal wives. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleMar 1, 2012
Only in the execution does Madonna stumble: Despite the undeniable romance of the historical material, she has made a movie more concerned with how things look than how they feel. Which should not surprise anyone. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 9, 2012
W.E., her second effort after 2008's "Filth and Wisdom,'' tries awfully hard. In the end it tries our patience. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyFeb 9, 2012
Madonna the director deserves a script better than the one Madonna the screenwriter handed off to her. The movie is full of incidents that don't quite cohere into a story - kind of like a Power Point presentation without a throughline. Read full review
50
Boxoffice MagazinePete HammondFeb 3, 2012
The result is an odd, very personal film that the pop star-turned-director has made with tender loving care, but the results of the final final film are mixed. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyNov 29, 2011
As easy on the eyes and ears as it is embalmed from any dramatic point of view. Read full review
42
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumJan 25, 2012
The movie is a folly, a desultory vanity project for its director and co-writer. But for those very reasons, W.E., by world-renowned personage and lesser-known filmmaker Madonna, is not without twisted interest. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 16, 2012
The production is nice looking, and telling the Edward-and-Wallis story from her side is an interesting idea, but it's one that Madonna simply can't pull off here. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 2, 2012
The upshot is that instead of a film about a love that conquered a king and nearly undid a kingdom, Madonna has come up with a female friendship movie, which would be fine if she weren't busy trying to prove her art-film bona fides. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanFeb 2, 2012
While W.E. cannot be counted as a successful directorial effort, there are genuine elements of interest here. The most notable is a nervy central performance from Andrea Riseborough, who plays true-life Baltimore socialite Wallis Simpson. Read full review
40
Time OutDave CalhounJan 31, 2012
Riseborough's acting offers total commitment in the face of lunacy, but it's a shame she's flapping around in an egotistical film with such a terribly warped sense of purpose. Read full review
40
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJan 30, 2012
With its restless parade of grainy closeups, the movie is a haze of retro rapture and wishful thinking, and, above all, a lost opportunity. We don't want to hear any more about ancient constitutional crises. We want to watch a three-way with a former King of England, in a bungalow. Madonna, of all people, missed a trick. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 8, 2011
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. Read full review
40
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 29, 2011
You can't call W.E. a total disaster; it's too pretty, too nonsensical and finally too insignificant for that. Read full review
40
VarietyLeslie FelperinNov 29, 2011
Burdened with risible dialogue and weak performances, picture doesn't have much going for it apart from lavish production design and terrific, well-researched costumes -- and it's in focus, which is more than can be said for the script. Read full review
38
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 9, 2012
Conceived and directed by Madonna, W.E. is a gorgeous mess. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 9, 2012
Madonna stayed married to director Guy Ritchie just long enough to absorb his most grating cinematic instincts - shooting in every style, in an addled, shuffle-mode, falsely glamorizing way until all is chaos. And, astonishingly, boredom. Read full review
38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenFeb 2, 2012
W.E. is a heavily made-up face masquerading as a movie and demanding to be admired – demands that might just leave you with an acute pain in the other end. Read full review
30
Village VoiceKarina LongworthJan 31, 2012
Certainly, W.E. is the work of a woman who apparently hasn't spent time with normal human beings in a while. But Madonna's anachronistic use of music is the least of her movie's problems. It's basic storytelling that stymies her. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 9, 2012
Whatever else W.E. may be (lousy, a waste of time, tin-eared, sleep-inducing, occasionally laughable, etc.), it's sincere and ambitious. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 2, 2012
Here's Madge one more time doing something for which she is eminently unsuited – directing. Read full review
25
The A.V. ClubNathan RabinFeb 1, 2012
For the scandal-prone icon behind the camera - who glibly writes off all that talk about her subjects' Nazi sympathies as slanderous nonsense from a jealous, hateful press and gossipy busybodies - the film might as well be called ME. Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonFeb 2, 2012
The director's apparent blindness to the epic banality of her subjects suggests that the whole project is one royally misguided mess. Read full review
0
TimeRichard CorlissDec 12, 2011
It's a shame that W.E. smells so bad. Read full review
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