"V for Vendetta"

V For Vendetta (2006) 2001pm RATING: 8/10 Directed by: James McTeigue Writen by: Andy Wachowski (screenplay) & Larry Wachowski (screenplay) CAST... Natalie Portman: Evey Hugo Weaving: V Stephen Rea: Finch Stephen Fry: Deitrich John Hurt: Adam Sutler Tim Pigott-Smith: Creedy MPAA: Rated R for strong violence and some language. Runtime: 132 min. A beautiful, petite, smart brunette named Evey (Natalie Portman) walks down a dark alleyway late at night and is assaulted by thugs who want more than money. The mace spray she pulls out of her purse is useless. Evey is thrown to the pavement, unconscious. Suddenly, a mysterious masked man appears out of nowhere and kicks the bad guys’ butts six ways from Sunday. Between body armor and martial arts mastery and accurately thrown knives, the man is indestructible. When Evey finally wakes up, she is lying in a bed in the secret lair of the masked man. Are we watching another typical comic book hero movie? No way. It’s November fourth in England in the year 2020. A civil war in America has spread overseas, but the British government has stopped the war in England by establishing a totalitarian regime. The evil dictator Adam Sutler (John Hurt) is running the country. Innocent citizens have been killed in prison camps where biological warfare experiments are conducted. The only people allowed out after curfew are government security enforcers. The TV station is state-run: the only “news” available on TV is written and produced by the government. Television is the only time the dictator Sutler is ever seen. There’s a popular variety show hosted by a man named Deitrich (Stephen Fry in a wonderful supporting performance), but that too is censored by the government. It’s hell on Earth for Englanders. The masked man who rescues Evey calls himself “V,” for reasons we learn during one the film’s most poignant scenes. He is played by Hugo Weaving in a difficult role, because we never see him talk through his mask. We only get to hear his voice, and watch him use body language to convey his emotions. (We learn V’s mask is fashioned after the image of Guy Fawkes, a religious fanatic who unsuccessfully tried to burn down the Houses of Parliament on November fifth, 1605. V has dedicated his life to emulating Fawkes.) Evey bonds with V quickly in the secret hideout. He feeds her fried eggs on pieces of toast and butter – the first real butter she’s had since childhood. Evey is stuck in V’s hidden lair, unable to show her face in public again since she faces certain death if recognized. When the clock strikes midnight to signal the arrival of November fifth, V also strikes. Furiously. He goes on a rampage, violently killing government officials and blowing up government property, resurrecting -- and expanding on -- the original mission of Guy Fawkes, who died in his attempt to destroy Parliament. V’s strike against the government sets the dominoes in motion, and, from this point on, nobody is safe: heroes’ lives are in danger from government retribution, and villains are no match for V. “V for Vendetta” is first and foremost a visual film, with its dark rooms, alleyways and shadows. (It’s based on a 1982 graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, who distanced themselves from the film, as they have for other films based on their work.) The film is not as comic-bookish in look or feel as I expected – not like “Batman” or “The Mask,” for example. But it has just enough of a 1984 Apple Macintosh computer commercial feel to it. What we see is not quite the real world, but close enough. V’s past is revealed to us in flashbacks that are not forced. The film churns through heroic plans that both succeed and fail, near-misses, dangerous escapes, and violent acts against people who, if you’re rooting for V, deserve what they get. Throughout the film, V is called, by different government officials, a “terrorist.” The “T Word” is used frequently, and was, I believe, deliberately put in the script to get us to react. Is V really a terrorist, or is he a revolutionary freedom fighter working for the common good of all people? That’s what the Wachowski brothers are asking us to decide. I believe there are good arguments on each side, thanks to the brothers themselves. They haven’t tried to force anything on us. The film leaves plenty of room for us to dislike its hero – a risky strategy by the filmmakers that worked. It is one of the reasons this film rises above so many others in this genre. The films successes also lead to some of its failures. We are bombarded with so many scenes of visual information combined with plot details that, at times, we get lost in the imagery and the details. But I found myself actually enjoying getting lost in what I was watching. Natalie Portman’s performance is the focal point, and she is superb in her portrayal of Evey. We feel everything she feels. We empathize with Hugo Weaving’s V, even as we’re deciding whether or not he’s doing the right thing. The supporting characters are cast perfectly – good or evil, everyone is convincing. “V for Vendetta” brings out all the guns (and knives) and all the butter, and lets us decide which is better. -2001pm -30-