2006 / 132 Minutes / R
Reviewed by Dale Nauertz

One man’s revolutionary is another man’s terrorist. In and of itself, that idea makes “V for Vendetta” quite possibly the ballsiest and boldest big budget Hollywood film in more than a decade.

But there are other reasons that “V” is so potent. For one thing, it takes George Orwell’s “1984” future (and, more extensively, the Thatcherian nightmare that was Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s 1980’s graphic novel) and adds elements of the current Bush administration to it. It steals elements from other bits of popular and classic fiction, but the way it seamlessly references modern problems and developments to use as the “history” of its particular future are very unnerving. For example: the problems in this film’s futuristic version of Britain spawned almost directly from a big, messy war started by America. The Wachowski brothers (who scripted this movie) clearly have important business on their minds, and they’re not about to let anyone off the hook by removing their world too far from our own reality.

Another bold move: making a film this big and this expensive about a masked terrorist intent on blowing up buildings and killing government officials. This was a bold enough move back when Alan Moore and David Lloyd wrote the graphic novel. But in this post-9/11 atmosphere, the film hits like a slap to the face. It’s as much a wake-up call as Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11”, and it’s a lot more entertaining.

“V”, the mysterious lead character voiced and probably performed by Hugo Weaving, has had his life and body destroyed by the fascist regime that controls this future Britain. He’s mad as hell and he wants everyone else to be the same way. Not only that, but he has nothing left to lose so he really doesn’t care anymore. He’s willing to do things that no one else has the balls to do and he’s willing to expose uncomfortable truths in a manner that is alternately bold and subtle. Hugo essays a surprising range of emotion here with just his voice and mannerisms. He’s a great and wickedly subversive presence. It’s a nice reminder of his fine work in the original “Matrix” before his character became a joke in the sequels.

But he’s not alone here. Every actor in this ensemble delivers fine work. Stephen Rea is excellent as the man investigating V’s crimes. He’s a cop with a conscience and a haunted past we are never told about. We don’t need flashbacks to know that Rea’s character has had a rough life. It’s all there in his eyes and his mannerisms. I also love Stephen Fry’s great performance as a much more subtle revolutionary than V. He invests his role with quiet dignity and genuine heart. There’s a mischievous twinkle in his eye that puts you on his side almost immediately. On the other side of the coin, John Hurt is at his most intimidating and malicious. He looms over every frame of the film and inspires the dread necessary for the viewer to appreciate this desperate and desolate situation. He’s not very pleasant, but he’s definitely necessary.

But the best performance in this film belongs to Natalie Portman. Watching her here, I have decided once and for all that she is the best actress working in film today. She’s so natural with what she does. She can take a thankless role in a film like this or one of the “Star Wars” prequels and invest it with quiet humanity. She is the emotional core of this film. She is the “ordinary” person who V takes under his wing. She undergoes the most emotional journey of anyone in this film and she sells the emotion in a mesmerizing fashion. Near the end of the film, there is a lengthy sequence where she is imprisoned and tortured and everything she has ever believed, every opinion she has is challenged and then shattered. I can’t think of an actress beside Portman who could sell this sequence as effortlessly and powerfully as she does. She is simply astonishing here and when she finally breaks down, when these emotions finally reach their crest and break upon you, you will sincerely feel her pain. Had this film been released last year, and had the Academy chosen to view it, Reese Witherspoon’s mantel would be a pretty empty place. She’s our window into the world of this film. She’s the heart and soul of this movie. And she will break your heart and make you care.

Then again, it helps that the film has such a strong, clever plot to work with. The Wachowskis were wise not to mess too much with Alan Moore’s source material. Aside from updating it to more greatly reflect the times in which we are living (there’s even a reference or two to bird flu) and making V’s revolution more widespread, they haven’t changed much except to make it fit within the standard film running time. The direction, by first-timer James McTeague, is solid and assured. The color pallet and look of the film is perhaps a bit too sleek (the panels of the comic were a bit grittier) and polished, but that can also work in context. After all, the government in this film has gone to great trouble to remove anything it labels “dirty” and “subversive” so the film’s sleek and polished look might be a good reflection of that.

There are a few moments of the film that sort of drag, and one of V’s speeches toward the beginning of the film felt just a little silly to me. But, for the most part, this is bold, emotional, witty, intense and haunting filmmaking. It argues for the power of revolution and the necessity of it and the importance of remembering such virtues. It’s filled with gutsy, powerful ideas. But they’re ideas that should never be forgotten.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 5th, 2006 at 2:07 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.