V for Vendetta

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2008)

I had heard and seen many images of this film, so I was definitely going to give it a go, from writer and producer brothers Andy and Larry Wachowski (creators of The Matrix). The film begins with the capture and hanging of Guy Fawkes, and then forwards to a not too distant looking future (2038) Great Britain, in which a masked (with the face of Guy Fawke) known only as V - or later William Rookwood (Hugo Weaving) - blows up the Old Bailey building on November 5th. He warns everyone that in 364 days from that night, he will do what the real Guy Fawkes planned and blow up the Houses of Parliament. Orphan Evey (Natalie Portman) finds herself helping V escape from the authorities, and slowly falling for him. V by the way is a very enigmatic terrorist, or vigilante if you like, who uses a lot of poetry and Shakespearian dialect to get his points across. There is a point when she is "captureD2 (and has her hair chopped off), when it was in fact V. Trying to find V are Inspector Finch (The Crying Game's Stephen Rea) and Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith), under the watch of their boss, a Big Brother type figure, Adam Sutler (John Hurt). So November 5th approaches, and Evey does come back to V, after he let her go, till the day of course, and he does sacrifice himself, before the streets are swarmed with hundreds of people in his image, and the Houses of Parliament blow up. Also starring Stephen Fry as Deitrich, Rupert Graves as Dominic, Roger Allam as Lewis Prothero, Ben Miles as Dascomb and Sinéad Cusack as Delia Surridge. V (which by the way in Roman numeral means five) is a very intriguing character, with knives and razors to slice up people in his way, and yet he speaks so poetically, you can't help but like him, and Weaving was the perfect choice. Portman does quite well with the English accent, and supporting cast members Rea, Hurt and Fry add some good depth, it is along the lines of something like A Clockwork Orange, Fight Club or Twelve Monkeys, very enigmatic with hidden messages, but a good film none-the-less. Good!