V for Vendetta (2006)

Directed by James McTeigue. Starring Natalie Portman, Stephen Rea, Hugo Weaving, John Hurt, Stephen Fry, Tim Pigott-Smith, Rupert Graves, Roger Allam, James Purefoy, Ben Miles, Sinéad Cusack, John Standing. [R]

In a totalitarian dystopia, Britain is ruled by tyrannical High Chancellor Sutler (Hurt), but revolution sometimes needs but a spark, and the spark here is an anarchy-minded terrorist in a Guy Fawkes-mask known as “V”. He bombs Old Bailey on November 5 (“Remember, remember, the fifth of November…”) and announces to the nation that in a year’s time, they should all join him by gathering in front of Parliament. Portman plays Evey, the daughter of deceased activists who becomes a vessel for V’s incendiary rhetoric, but is she trading an oppressive regime for something else that’s just as destructive and threatening? (Liberty at any cost is always a very messy proposition.) Provocative but murky political content drives the complex, talky (and sometimes confusing) narrative of this adaptation of the DC Vertigo Comics limited series (by Alan Moore, David Lloyd, and Tony Weare). Director McTeigue demonstrates a flair for brooding, Gothic atmosphere among the rigid fascist designs (the relationship between V and Evey isn’t entirely unlike the one between the Phantom and Christine); even the encroachment of pulp exaggeration doesn’t spoil the paranoid broth, including stylized fight scenes that abandon all sense of logic. What does nearly sabotage the show, however, is the self-serious, even self important, mood pervading these anti-authoritarian fantasies. If we have to suspend disbelief at nearly every turn for the sake of its subversive themes and striking imagery, couldn’t the filmmakers have thrown us a wink or two so we know they didn’t actually think they were making a Big Statement on the subject? Written and co-produced by the Wachowskis; Joel Silver was also a producer. Always behind a mask, V is portrayed onscreen by both Weaving and an uncredited Purefoy, with the former replacing the latter partway through production and dubbing all of Purefoy’s dialogue.

60/100