V For Vendetta

Of all of the film adaptations of Alan Moore's body of work, V For Vendetta is the least embarrassing. While it would unfair, nerdy, and time-consuming to whinge about all of the ways that "they ruined it," it is impossible, especially since I read the graphic novel first, to completely ignore the source material in discussing the movie. That being said, V For Vendetta, on its own, is a pretty decent movie.

At its core, we have two characters, V (Hugo Weaving), and Evie (Natalie Portman), who meet when V saves Evie from being raped by sleazy government agents in an alley. Despite V's constant insistence that there is no such thing as coincidence, this apparently doesn't apply to this situation as he, a neo-Liberal terrorist, just happens to be in the area to protect her, the child of a sign-toting protest couple whose other son was killed as part of a secret government experiment, which was only made possible because of a secret government facility in which V was, for awhile, a prisoner. It certainly explains why Evie is willing to go along with, and learn from V, but the overwhelming coincidence, especially in light of the fact that such things allegedly don't exist, is hard to ignore.

Moving on, V is frustrated and disgusted by the current state of the government. They are pretty damned evil, like Bond villain evil. This is a government rife with censorship, phone tapping, questionable experiments, and all kinds of murder. Despite keeping the same locale as the graphic novel (London, England), the film's adaptation is geared more toward a Patriot Act-era American audience. In this world, the common rabble complacently sits and watches the telly while it spews the religious, sexual, and various other intolerances that the government insists are required for England to prevail. Nonetheless, there is an underlying awareness that something is wrong about the situation, so much so that all it takes is one man (V) to spark a revolution. Urged on by his willingness to stand up to their oppressers, seemingly everyone in England gives their head a shake, realizes that fascism is a bad thing, and joins him.

V is a problematic hero. While we can celebrate that he is the one willing to get his hands dirty to make some change happen, he's also batshit insane. He is enough of a genius to plan and effectively execute an act of terrorism (or symbolic rejection of the current order, depending on how you look at it) that had publicly announced a full year before. He also has some kind of superpowers left over from the government's experiments (mainly an excuse to have him be able to kick the asses of dozens of armed soldiers at once). His motives are somewhat unclear, mostly due to the aforementioned batshittiness. The people who are responsible for the facility where he was a prisoner have now all become important to the government. Even though picking them off one by one seems like an effective way to weaken a corrupt government, it's made fairly clear that much of his motivation stems from revenge, as though the only real reason he's so pissed off at the government is because of what they did to him, rather than the countless other regular injustices they execute on a daily basis.

And that's why he (and we) need Evie, a woman who has been personally hurt by the institution that governs her, but not in the direct, personal way that V has been. Near the end, while V goes off to finish what he's started, he puts Evie in charge of the act that will unite England in the destruction of the current order. He says that it is not his revolution to create, which is absolutely true. Even though V has the clearest understanding of exactly what this government does, his entitlement to bringing it down is corrupted by his personal fury. This leaves us with Evie, who, like most other citizens, is aware of the corruption, but has until now, had no clear method for acting against it. V built the bomb, but it is up to Evie, the ultimate victim of this system, to light the fuse.

Other thoughts:

1) Stephen Fry is simply amazing. His portrayal of the tragic talk-show host is infinitely charming and possibly the most touching part of the whole movie.

2) The bloody showiness of the fight scenes felt excessive to the story. It makes V superhuman and less identifiable.

3) The government is a bit too obviously evil, while civilization is a bit too aware of it. While I suppose this may be the point, making a statement about just how much we, as citizens are willing to ignore, the revolutionary spirit that unifies the entire population seems to come out of nowhere. Despite years of living under this theocratic dictatorship, the English seem to be able to remove it, like an ugly sweater they had to wear for dinner because Aunt Mildred was over and she had knit it, at the earliest convenience. At the end, everything wraps up in an immaculately neat, Hollywood way that people may forget that they are supposed to be inspired to look critically at the world around them. In the real world, Ernst Blofeld doesn't have to be President for there to be something wrong.

Rating: 3.25 stars