"V For Vendetta" Movie Review

V for Vendetta is a fascinating, often exciting movie. It may even be an important movie. The screenwriters Andy and Larry Wachowski, seem to have intended it to be. V for Vendetta is based on a British graphic novel of the same name, and the film treads a fine line balancing harsh realism and stylized art direction.

The story itself can be seen as a retelling of The Phantom of the Opera (a surpassingly effective one) as integrated with the sense of George Orwell's 1984. (The original comic book anthology was indeed written between 1982 and 1985.)

In the England of the year 2020, fascism with a fundamentalist Christian influence has taken hold in the wake of biological terrorism. The United States has been devastated by plague and years of war. One man, a charismatic, masked freedom fighter known only as 'V,' plans to avenge his abuse at the hands of the regime, exact revenge for thousands of other victims, and destroy the ruling power.

As in The Matrix, excitingly choreographed fight scenes display the hero's seemingly invincible stealth and martial art, as well as an uncanny skill with his signature weapon, the throwing knife.

V hides his identity behind a mask made in the image of Guy Fawkes, a real-life historical figure of the 17th century. Fawkes was a central figure in a conspiracy to assassinate the King of England and the members of both Houses of Parliament for their persecution of Catholics. He was captured, interrogated with the use of torture and violently executed by being publicly hanged, drawn and quartered.

The use of Guy Fawkes as an archetype for V as self-appointed liberator adds layers of moral ambiguity to his apparent role as freedom fighter and savior. Fawkes, despite his aim of ending persecution, was practicing the kind of religiously motivated terrorism that spawned 9/11, and V is certainly an anarchist bent on wiping the political slate clean, not on re-writing it.

Alan Moore, the original creator of V for Vendetta in graphic novel form, intended not to provide answers for his protagonist's moral ambiguity, but rather to inspire questions and thought. "Is this guy right? Or is he mad?" Or perhaps both?

It should be mentioned that Moore is not a fan of this filmed version, and feels it dilutes the message of his original story. The graphic novel explains much more of V's world and contains several differences in the story line. Moore was also the creator of the graphic novel From Hell which was made into the motion picture starring Johnny Depp.

Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith of The Matrix and Elrond of The Lord of the Rings) invests the character of V with astonishing magnetism and sympathy, despite the initial strangeness of his masked visage. Natalie Portman, as V's protégé, has several outstanding scenes in which her talent for expressing vulnerability and strength is displayed. John Hurt is cast as Adam Sutler, a cross between Orwell's Big Brother and Adolph Hitler.

After the promise of The Matrix and Bound, and the comparative disappointment of parts two and three of the Matrix Trilogy, V for Vendetta represents another step forward in the evolution of the Wachowski's as must-see film makers.