Complex, Contradictory, Contrived

Rating: 7/10 (22 March 2006)

The source material was an effective protest against Maggie Thatcher and the homophobic paranoia that attended the rise of AIDS infections in the UK. It might have played better back then than it does now. A truly hard sell to release a film about bombing British landmarks less than a year after the terrorist attacks that struck the London transit system. What were the suits thinking?
As a revenge fantasy, this movie works well enough, and there are some truly exciting passages. But how can audiences ignore the context of life today? How can we rally round a terrorist hero? Just the sort of well-meaning but soft-headed pop entertainment that can be appropriated by either fringe (if he were alive today, I'm sure Timothy McVeigh would give this movie four stars).
The heart of the movie is when Evey (Natalie Portman) is arrested and tortured and, consequently, becomes radicalized. This has plenty to say about our world today, especially counterproductive practices like extreme rendition. Terrorists are made, not born.