V For Vendetta

Posted by Greg

February 28, 2008

Revenge is Neat

***1/2 out of *****

“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” - Traditional proverb

Nowhere is this statement more true than in the year 2006 (well, it was probably really true during the Crusades, but I’m generalizing). You have to hand it to 20^th Century Fox for having the balls to release a movie dealing with a shadowy figure who takes hostages and utters phrases like “blowing up a building can change the world.” Based on an 80’s comic serial by geek-god writer Alan Moore and artist David Lloyd, the weighty V for Vendetta is a literate movie that attempts to cover a lot of ground, dealing with issues such as the power an individual can wield over a crowd, where the line is drawn between security and control, and how cool knives can look when they fly through the air in slow motion toward a dude’s forehead.

In the year 2020, the UK is a safe and happy place to be - so long as you’re not out after curfew, don’t question authority, stay away from banned books, music and art and do what the Government tells you to. Out of the shadows emerges V, a black-clad figure who wears a smirking mask representing Guy Fawkes, the Catholic nutjob who tried to blow up the British Parliament in 1605. One night, he rescues a girl, Evey, from a rape at the hands of some Fingermen, government goons who pretty much do as they please. He then takes her under his wing as he begins his plan to overthrow the fascist regime by planting the seeds for revolution. And a few bombs.

The heart of the movie is Natalie Portman, as Evey. I didn’t buy her at first, I thought she was a bit too pixie-ish and took things a bit too lightly, but as the movie progressed, so did she. At the end of the day, she did a great job, making Evey into a strong character yet one we can connect to.

The original V, James Purefoy, left during filming but was replaced by Hugo Weaving, who does a fantastic job bringing some emotion to what is essentially a faceless character. Subtle head bobs and an arched or sloping back really help expand the emotion within the deep timbre of his voice - nice work.

First-time director James McTeigue handles things like he’s an accountant at the world’s smallest NGO. There’s no fat to be had on this flick; it moves along at a good clip, barely slowing down as it switches from scene to scene, the kinetic editing whisking you along with it. There were a few times where a nice slow pan would have been pleasant to allow us a few seconds to digest some particularly heavy dialogue, but this problem only pops up a few times.

Visually, the film looks as it should, give its source material and subject matter. Blacks are really black and colors are bright (yin and yang, good and evil), the effects are not easy to notice and there are very few flashy camera moves to try to jazz things up (letting the actors do what they do best).

Even with the judicious editing, the movie still runs over two hours, but that’s a good thing. In fact, one of the problems with it was that it had quite a few interesting ideas, tangents and character histories that weren’t explained fully enough. A few loose ends were left dangling and a bit of exposition is always nice, but the line between talking TO your audience and talking DOWN to them is a tricky one to navigate. There is lots of proselytizing about control and destiny as V becomes more and more audacious in his scheme and detective Finch (Stephen Rea), gets closer to tracking him down.

Overall, V for Vendetta is a loquacious movie that tackles some pretty serious subject matter. It’s not a straight-up action movie (despite what you may think from the slam-bang trailers), and suffers from some scattered ambiguities, but it’s well acted, well directed and original.

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