Truly, truly, truly amazing

Rating: 9/10 (10 May 2006)

Mahatma Gandhi once said that non-violence would work in any society but the totalitarian state. V for Vendetta looks at one can ( perhaps what one must ) do in order to make a difference.
I must admit that I had been looking forward to this movie for a while when it had come out. I was certainly gladdened then that if anything, it exceeded my expectations.
The plot revolves around Evey Hammond ( Natalie Portman ), who lives in a proto-fascist state reminiscent of 1984. To this end, after a encounter with some of the secret police that begins to turn ugly, she is saved by the mysterious V ( Hugo Weaving ), a revolutionary with a past that he demands atonement for. With Evey at his side V begins to slowly dispatch those who had wronged him in his mysterious past, leaving him as the outcast that he is at the present, while at the same time, beginning preparations to give the government a 5th of November to never be forgotten, in honour of Guy Fawkes.
This is not a movie about right wingers against left wingers, or greenies against conservatives. Rather this is a movie about what can happen to a society when fear grips it, when difference is abhorred rather than celebrated. The sequence with the movie director is perhaps one of the most interesting and touching in film this year.
What is also great about this movie is the way V is portrayed- he is by no means a good man- he is by all accounts a man who is out for revenge against a government who cursed him for something he cannot remember. He is no Gandhi or Mandela, but a man on his quest for vengeance and Hugo Weaving portrays this immaculately.
Portman is good as Evey, though her accent occasionally drops off, Stephen Fry is excellent as her boss, showing comic timing and deep regret in equal measure, and John Hurt is truly frightening as Chancellor Sutler.
This is an incredible movie and it deserves many accolades. As Mr Franklin once said, "He who sacrifices liberty for security will gain neither and lose both."