>>REVIEW
V FOR VENDETTA
STARRING Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving
DIRECTED BY James McTeigue
Opens Friday, March 17
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V for Vendetta is a film based on a graphic novel whose original author has completely distanced himself not only from the film’s screenplay, but in a recent interview, from reprintings of his own comic. So, while comparisons between Alan Moore’s original graphic novel and the screenplay written by the Wachowski brothers are inevitable, they are also, finally, impossible.
For better or for worse, V for Vendetta is its own film, albeit one that borrows so heavily from the original source that it might be called plagiarism if Warner Brothers didn’t own the film rights. It is a consummate product of the same writing team that created the Matrix trilogy, delivering its message with all the subtlety of a slow motion gun battle in a marble lobby.
In a dystopian world where the ubiquitous police presence, specialized governmental branches and fascist government are clear references to George Orwell’s 1984 – the Wachowski Brothers aren’t the first ones to borrow liberally – the fearful, allegorical Evey (Natalie Portman) is thrust into the world of a superhuman, masked terrorist known only as V (Hugo Weaving). Without an identity, his face always concealed behind a Guy Fawkes mask, V is an abstracted intelligence devoted to the destruction of the oppressive post-war government, led by Arch Chancellor Sulter (John Hurt), and its total control over freedom, both physical and intellectual.
In the 1980s, Moore was placing Ronald Reagan and western conservatives in his sights with satire informed by comic book violence. In 2006, only the unspoken names of the world’s leaders has changed.
To say that V for Vendetta is a topical critique and a call to action against the current American and British governments would be like calling the sound of your bones snapping under the weight of a Mack truck a reminder to move. Displayed on Dell monitors and other branded electronics – proof that even uncompromising visions need to pay the bills – the frenzied media of the Wachowski’s future culminates in a final campaign of sensational news reports of terrorist fear and avian flu warnings. Subtle the Wachowski brothers ain’t.
But while director James McTeigue may labour under a script full of painful additions, such as an underdeveloped romantic subplot between V and Evey, and even adds his own ham-fisted allusions, the result is indisputably gorgeous and entertaining. The film’s pacing, though uneven at points, draws the audience inevitably from Evey’s first meeting with V toward the government’s collapse, through blood-spattered fight scenes and stark images of brutality and intolerance.
For better or for worse, V for Vendetta is the brainchild of a pair of brothers who make films best described as stylish sledgehammers. Where it falters in its writing, it rises visually. Where it insults its audience’s intelligence, it offers a world utterly realized. Though thickly painted in stark blacks and whites, V for Vendetta doesn’t lack for colour. |
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