V for Vapid

Rating: 4/10 (7 April 2006)

V for Vendetta is set in a palpably morose not-too-distant future. Britannia rules the waves again; and America is spiraling down in waves of self destruction. England is in the clutches of a dentally challenged demagogue, the Supreme Chancellor, modeled after Hitler. Our protagonist (V), a latter day Guy Fawkes with issues, is a byproduct of government experiments, now hell bent on revenge. The masked avenger's strategy is to blow up government and quasi-government landmarks, with muzak playing in the background. Unlike your typical action/comics hero film that is mercifully free of reality, this confused attempt is weighed down by celluloid fetters of the overt, political kind. There is a veritable grocery list of broad, heavy handed references to a variety of themes including but not limited to the current war on terrorism, Abu Ghraib, Nazi experiments in concentration camps, homophobia, Dick Cheney and racism. The movie fails in generating our sympathy, and thus our continued interest, in any of the film's plethora of implausible and motiveless one-dimensional characters. Perhaps, one would sympathize with the man in the mask a tad bit more if he blew up ugly buildings for pure aesthetic reasons. The performances range from the unintentionally funny to high histrionics punctuated with dull hamming. The highlight of the movie was a scene, where the wigged wonder, now in an apron and humming tunes, makes Evey (played by Natalie Portman) a rather impoverished breakfast.