V FOR VENDETTA (James McTeigue, 2005) ***

Rating: 7/10 (11 September 2006)

Undoubtedly, one of the best comic strip-to-film adaptations I've seen in recent years (although, I have absolutely no idea how faithful or successful an adaptation it actually is); at any rate, it has much going for it - a good cast consisting of reliable character actors (John Hurt, Stephen Rea, Stephen Fry, Tim Piggott-Smith, etc.), spectacular production design and cinematography, an interesting - if convoluted - dystopian storyline and, last but not least, surprisingly engaging leads in Natalie Portman (who's much more attractive and at ease here than in the Star Wars series) and Hugo Weaving (who has the difficult task of acting, from beginning to end, with a mask hiding his facial features). I've never heard of the director of this one and I've never bothered with the seemingly incomprehensible MATRIX trilogy (whose makers serve as the screenwriters here) but, as I said before, I found it to be an intelligent, enjoyable and altogether very satisfying outing which, thankfully, seems not be the start of another franchise which diminishes in quality with every subsequent entry...