V For Vendetta Review [3]
Posted by Chris McCarver on 03.21.2006
The Wachowskis redeem themselves. Almost.
V FOR VENDETTA
Starring Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, and John Hurt
Directed by James McTeigue
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures in association with DC/Vertigo Comics and Silver Pictures
Rated R for strong violence and some language
Release Date: March 17, 2006
Runtime: 2 hrs., 12 min.
Review by CHRIS McCARVER
For the second time the moviemakers in Tinseltown delve into DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, the line of mature-themed comicbook fare published by the house that Superman and Batman built. Previous film forays into the Vertigo village, such as the Keanu Reeves vehicle Constantine, hit the big screen with mixed reviews. And the latest Vertigo movie venture, V for Vendetta, seemed to have quite a few strikes against it from the beginning. For one thing, the film is written and produced by Larry and Andy Wachowski of Matrix trilogy infamy, and though Los. Bros. Wachowski yielded the director's chair to first-time director James McTeigue (who acted as first assistant director for all three Matrix films), the conclusion of their heretofore groundbreaking sci-fi action saga left a bad taste in most moviegoers' palates. Second, Alan Moore, the author of the graphic novel on which the film is based as well as other recent adapted comic works as From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, publicly denounced the film as he has all other movies based on his work and even had his name stripped off the film's credits. Dissuade yourselves from the anti-hype, my friends, because V for Vendetta is a groundbreaking commentary on life and the world around us that only speculative fiction could hope to provide.
Set a couple decades hence in London, the country has since become a police state ruled by High Chancellor Adam Sutler (played with relish by acclaimed actor John Hurt), a religiously zealous despot who has turned the United Kingdom into a land where any act against Christian belief, up to and including being gay or even possessing a copy of non-Christian religious tomes such as the Koran, is considered an act of treason for which one would face a firing squad. The story largely centers on Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), a working-class girl who finds herself the point of interest for a masked vigilante calling himself "V" (Hugo Weaving), after he saves her from being assaulted by "Fingermen" (the movie's version of the Gestapo).
V and Evey share something of an odd relationship, largely affected by V's intent to blow up the British Parliament building, not only to free the land from Sutler's tyranny, but to commemorate the sacrifice of Guy Fawkes, who was hanged for his attempt to blow up Parliament on Nov. 5, 1606. V publicly announces that the 5th of November, one year later, is when he'll next strike. Evey struggles with V's convictions; though she admit the government is responsible for many a wrong, she isn't sure the taking of lives is justified in the name of unseating Sutler.
Meanwhile, Sutler has charged Insp. Eric Finch (Stephen Rea) with finding V and Evey, the latter of which the government believes is in collusion with the former. However, as V begins assassinating various key members of the government, Finch uncovers a conspiracy within the government involving the slain officials and a detention center not mentioned in official records. Finch finds himself struggling with his loyalty and his search for the truth, as Sutler orders him to abandon further research into the conspiracy in favor of finding V and Evey, going so far as to set the brutal head of the Fingermen, Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith), after the two "terrorists" in lieu of due process.
First off, I can't begin to review this movie without first mentioning that some of you, dependent on your political beliefs may find the content of this film a bit offensive. Those of you who know about the film's half-year rescheduling after the bombings in London can probably understand why the content of this film could be construed as inflammatory. I'm telling everyone the same thing I told the 411 readers who read (and responded very negatively) to my positive review of Fahrenheit 9/11, and that's that my job here is to review the movie on the basis of how well it's shot, how well the story is scribed, and how well the actors perform. And I'm asking you to not take this review as any stance by myself as a declaration of my political views and affiliations one way or the other. In short, I'm reviewing this movie, not what it may or may not politically or socially represent. We have a Politics Zone for all that, and this isn't it. All clear now? Good.
That said, V for Vendetta is one fine piece of moviemaking. Alan Moore's derisions aside, the film did an awesome job of hitting the books high points, although more than a few liberties are taken to make the characters more "palatable" in comparison with their graphic-novel counterparts. Hence, there are no mention of, as depicted in the graphic novel, Finch's drug use, Evey's aborted attempt to become a prostitute, and while the character of Gordon Deitrich (as played by Harry Potter and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy narrator Stephen Fry) is depicted as a petty criminal in the comic, in the film he is a late-night talk show host and Evey's employer. Some may see these as bastardized interpretations of Moore's original work, but the core intent of the graphic novel remains and some of the book's best moments are depicted as accurately as possible in the film.
Probably one of the best moments of the movie arrives when Evey is captured and subjected to endless bouts of torture and interrogation. Fans of the book will doubtlessly remember this segment of the story, and it is told with as much brutality and humanity as it was in the source material. Natalie Portman will make you forget about her strained final outing as Padme Amidala in the Star Wars films, as she delivers a tour-de-force performance both in this segment and in the remainder of the film. Portman's Evey undergoes a major change of life as a result of this ordeal and watching her metamorphosis is very much worth the price of admission, particularly for the rather shocking conclusion of the imprisonment sequence.
As far as the rest of the cast goes, Hugo Weaving is a real treat to watch as V, acting entirely behind an obscuring Guy Fawkes facemask that makes facial emotion a complete impossibility. Yet, through voice and body language, as well as the expert dialogue adapted from Moore's work by the Wachowskis, Weaving fully fleshes out the mysterious vigilante, making him wittier, more well-read, and more of a joy to watch than any comic-book superhero to ever grace the screen.
Also of major note is John Hurt, who acts with similar constraints to Weaving's. For the most part, Hurt's High Chancellor Sutler is only seen as a close-up head shot on a 50-foot LCD screen, barking orders and commandments to his subordinates. Yet, with as little as that to work with, Hurt portrays Sutler as equal parts Pat Robertson and Adolf Hitler, a tyrannical sociopath who doesn't mind stacking up the corpses in favor of the perfect God-fearing Britain he seeks to create. Hurt's Sutler sees words as "sedition," "treason", and "summary execution" as though they were labels on buttons, his finger ever hovering over each one and nearly drooling for the opportunity to push one.
As far as the movie itself, the film gives us a very bleak picture of near-total government control, what could truly happen once we trade freedom for safety. Where surveillance trucks roam the streets listening for anything to make an arrest with, mandatory curfews are strictly enforced, and the highest officials in the land will denounce the people's actions in public, yet practice far worse in the privacy of their own homes. We don't only see Alan Moore's nightmarish future England through the eyes of the principal characters, but through those of many of England's unnamed and largely unsung citizens, who act as mirror and fellow audience members to the film's various events. And the film does contain a fair number of expertly choreographed sequences for the fight-scene fans among us, complete with a wowing new application for bullet time near the film's closing moments.
The 411: Hellacious fight scenes, socio-political commentary, and a rich story about the human condition. You wouldn't think such a combination could exist, let alone succeed in the movie wasteland of 2006. But amidst the nouveau slasher flicks and fart-joke comedies, there often lies a jewel. And that latest jewel is V for Vendetta. While I still hold the Wachowski Bros. responsible more for the decline of the Matrix franchise than its creation, they've gone a long way towards redeeming themselves in my opinion with this film. It's my hope that we see more of this caliber of filmmaking from them, and that director James McTeigue receives all the accolades he deserves. An absolute masterpiece, this film, and one for which I'm happy to give my highest recommendation.
