Making anarchy look cool

Based on the Vertigo DC Comics series, V for Vendetta is a coming-of-age film for the Wachowski Brothers’ writing and production tandem. Noted for their highly-touted and successful Matrix films, the Wachowskis finally give us more coherent and tighter screenplay-writing with V for Vendetta. While high on gloss and "look," I found the Matrix films wanting in terms of story and plot/character development. You could enjoy the two hours for the story premise and effects, but I would sense a hollow center and feel that the characters (with the possible exception of Neo) were just short of being fully realized and engaging. With V for Vendetta, the minutes slip by really quickly; and the tale of modern-day terrorism, of grand gestures against totalitarianism disguised as benevolent democracy, is truly engrossing.

Directed by James McTeigue, the excellent cast boasts of Natalie Portman playing the central character Evie, Hugo Weaving as V – wearing a Guy Fawkes mask throughout the film, Stephen Rea as the conscience-stricken police inspector, and John Hurt as the ruler of this bleak, near-future vision of Great Britain. Also playing a great supporting role is author-comedian Stephen Fry as a TV talk show host.

The setting is England in the near future. After years of global upheaval and unrest, John Hurt’s politician character has won the elections and effectively brought on a regime of stability, but one that is coated over by conformity and repression. Portman’s Evie works in a government-controlled TV station, and it is as she leaves her apartment one night after curfew that she is accosted by the less than well-intentioned curfew officers.

Enter V in vigilante mode, saving her from her would-be assailants, and immediately, we are whisked into the charismatic world of V. In comic book fashion, V is presented as the lone agent, acting against the neo-fascist regime that has its stranglehold on British society. Thanks to the particular personal history of Evie, how her parents were dissenters to John Hurt’s regime and paid for it with their lives, we glean that this encounter between V and Evie is anything but coincidental, and that at heart, they are two sides of the same coin.

V (as played by Hugo Weaving who was Agent Smith in the Matrix series) is perpetually in a Guy Fawkes mask. Celebrating Fawkes and his attempt to blow up the House of Parliament in 1605, V sets off bombs at the Old Bailey as a warning to the government, and to spur people to show up a year later at Parliament and clamor for that "wind of change" that will restore democracy and bring back a more open society. Considering how Guy Fawkes is now remembered with fireworks, like a Fourth of July in England, it’s amusing to note how whenever V sets up his explosives, fireworks are also part of the scenario. This makes each act of terrorism also a celebratory event!

The peculiar history of V, the cover-ups of governments everywhere (in the film, this theme centers on a detention center for political dissidents where scientific experiment in biological warfare was carried out), and how these governments sustain their power and control the populace through a variety of means including media manipulation, are all given the Wachowski treatment for us to squarely root for V and Evie on their journey of anarchy.

At the same time, the Wachowskis show us how deceitfully seductive this patina of stability can be. With complacency and superficial satisfaction over how things work, people are prosperous, and peace and order reign. The transgression of personal freedoms and liberties can become such a small price to pay. The subtext here is that unless we are spurred to act, it is so easy for us to negate the true power we possess as people.

These are heady themes to take on, and what sets the film apart is that this message never becomes heavy-handed. This is a comic-book inspired conspiracy thriller, and the thriller elements are never overtaken by whatever political message is embedded in the story. At its core, the film is out to entertain, and this it does successfully.

The pacing of the film is excellent, and the casting is top-notch. Portman takes a decisive step in enhancing her acting career with the role of Evie. As Princess Amidala, she was nothing more than a romantic prop for the Star Wars story to develop, while here she exhibits much more spunk and verve and provides the film’s emotional core. The actual shaving of her head for this film indicates how she’s ready to move on from just being an angelic screen presence.

Weaving is a delight as V. When he first encounters Evie, his alliterative speech, peppered as it is by words that start with the letter V, endears us to him immediately. The story of why V has chosen to take this path is one riddled with government intrigue, shady alliances between government and the scientific community, and the victims that fall through the cracks. These are all crucial, as when the extent to which he will act and move to achieve his ends becomes apparent, the danger that he will lose our sympathies has been abated.

The cinematography is grainy and the lighting is dark and somber. At times, the film takes on a mock-documentary feel and this heightens the impact of the film. In what looks like an inside joke between the Wachowskis and Weaving, just as the Matrix had CGI’s of multiple Agent Smiths in the classic fight sequence with Neo; here we have multiple V’s, thanks to the Guy Fawkes masks that V sends all over London.

While a Warner Films release and co-produced with Joel Silver, the Wachowskis’ co-prod participation comes in the form of Anarchos Productions, and this moniker sets the tone for what the Wachowskis are glorifying through this film. This is a film that firmly has its heart on the side of the terrorist, on the individual ready to actively confront government, and bring about its downfall. With V, we root for the person who says a restrictive government policy, no matter how benevolent or stable, pays a price to reach that point, and should be brought down. That the people who are subjugated, no matter how compliant and content with the stability, should be "pricked" to rise up against such qualified and devalued democracy. While this is all done from a comic-book perspective, it is interesting to note how, within the context of this day and age, the moral "black and whites" of this film have a very subversive reverse spin to them.

V for Vendetta works because it’s one great yarn, and our sympathies are harnessed as we follow the adventures of V and E-V.