A spoilt American girl falls for a well-known Brit and worries about her reputation. Yep, it’s Madonna, recently divorced from film-making royalty Guy Ritchie, directing the story of Wallace Simpson’s romance with Edward VIII. Sometimes the jokes just write themselves.
Andrea Riseborough and Tom D’Arcy play the star-crossed lovers as they meet, marry and go into exile in France. Meanwhile, there’s a parallel narrative where the unhappily married Wally (Abbie Cornish) falls for a security guard (Oscar Isaac) at a New York museum.
Apart from some nice period detail, Her Madgesty’s second attempt to direct a film is an abysmal failure. The dialogue is wooden at best and the performances risible.
Worst of all is a moment where – and I’m not making this up – Edward and Wallace get down to The Sex Pistols’ Pretty Vacant.
