Written by the transgender Wachowski brothers, Andy (Lili) and Larry (Lana) – and directed by first-timer James McTeigue (their assistant on The Matrix) – the film flies on a rhythm all its own.
There’s nothing Neo about V, the masked avenger who uses bombs, daggers and his telegenic charisma to take down the fascist Norsefire Party regime that has left him a burned remnant of its ungodly experiments.
Hugo Weaving – Agent Smith in the Matrix movies – plays this terrorist grandmaster behind a plastic Guy Fawkes mask that makes his vocal wit and physical eloquence doubly remarkable.
Never mind that the Shakespeare-quoting rose-carrying V comes dangerously close to Phantom of the Opera kitsch, or that his politics can be as simplistic as Billy Jack‘s. V has his mojo working.
And so do the filmmakers. The source material is the 1989 graphic novel illustrated by David Lloyd and written by Alan Moore, who wanted no part of what the Wachowskis have wrought (Moore took his name off the film’s credits).
In the Wachowski update, England is a police state ruled by Chancellor Sutler (John Hurt), a fear-mongering, gay-bashing, Islam-hating dictator who strips citizens of their civil rights and religious freedoms in exchange for protection from bioweapons of mass destruction.
V for Vendetta is an action film that is not afraid to stop for thoughtful debate, a wry laugh or a lesson on how to fry an egg for a pretty girl. That (the girl, not the egg) is Evey (Natalie Portman), a slave at a chancellor-controlled TV network where the star is a blowhard conservative commentator named Lewis Prothero (Roger Allam) and known as the “Voice of Fate”.
Also at the station is Deitrich (Stephen Fry), a closeted gay man who mocks the chancellor in a TV comedy skit, placing him firmly in the crosshairs of the chancellor and his henchman, Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith) – the ruthless leader of ‘the Finger’ (the regime’s secret police).
Poor Evey doesn’t know where to turn.
On her first meeting with V (who saves her from rape by police thugs), Evey is taken to a rooftop for some fireworks – but not the sexual kind.
V raises his hands like a conductor and directs Evey to watch as the Old Bailey blows up and lights the night sky.
It’s V who set the bombs, in honour of Guy Fawkes, the Catholic vigilante who unsuccessfully tried to blow up Parliament on 5 November 1605.
V vows that next year – on 5 November 2020 – Parliament will be history.
He sweeps Evey away to his secret lair and shows her his ‘Shadow Gallery’, where he keeps forbidden artefacts, such as the Koran, and listens to the Velvet Underground.
It’s there that she learns of V’s brutal history and his reasons for murdering coroner Delia Surridge (a superb Sinéad Cusack) – who had been the lead medical researcher at the Larkhill concentration camp, where V had been subjected to illegal drug trials and left physically disfigured and psychologically shattered.
V’s politicalisation of Evey is at the film’s core. She evades arrest from Finch (a haunted Stephen Rea), the cop on the V case, but not the hands of a hidden tormenter who abducts her, jails her, shaves her hair (Portman sacrificed her own locks for the role) and pushes her hard to betray V.
Portman’s English accent comes and goes, but not her performance, which becomes the heart and soul of the movie.
She’s dynamite, especially when Evey finds a letter written by Valerie Page (Natasha Wightman), a lesbian victim of torture and begins to understand V’s true mission.
Setting indelible images to a deft score by Dario Marianelli, McTeigue speeds us along to a thunderous climax at the Houses of Parliament.
Evey
Natalie Portman V
Hugo Weaving Finch
Stephen Rea Deitrich
Stephen Fry Chancellor Adam Sutler
John Hurt Peter Creedy
Tim Pigott-Smith Dominic
Rupert Graves Lewis Prothero
Roger Allam Dascomb
Ben Miles Delia Surridge
Sinéad Cusack Valerie Page
Natasha Wightman Lilliman
John Standing Etheridge
Eddie Marsan Guy Fawkes
Clive Ashborn Guy Fawkes’ Lover
Emma Field-Rayner Heyer
Guy Henry Patricia
Cosima Shaw Vicky
Tara Hacking Fred
Andy Rashleigh Storm Saxon
Chad Stahelski Laser Lass
Antje Rau Jones
Joseph Rye Major Wilson
Malcolm Sinclair Evey’s Brother
Bradley Steve Ford Young Evey
Madeleine Rakic-Platt Evey’s Mother
Selina Giles Evey’s Father
Carsten Hayes Denis
Martin Savage Young Valerie
Imogen Poots Sarah
Laura Greenwood Christina
Kyra Meyer Valerie’s Father
Paul Antony-Barber Valerie’s Mother
Anna Farnworth Ruth
Mary Stockley
Director
James McTeigue
Video
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There’s nothing Neo about V, the masked avenger who uses bombs, daggers and his telegenic charisma to take down the fascist Norsefire Party regime that has left him a burned remnant of its ungodly experiments.
In the Wachowski update, England is a police state ruled by Chancellor Sutler (John Hurt), a fear-mongering, gay-bashing, Islam-hating dictator who strips citizens of their civil rights and religious freedoms in exchange for protection from bioweapons of mass destruction.
Poor Evey doesn’t know where to turn.
It’s there that she learns of V’s brutal history and his reasons for murdering coroner Delia Surridge (a superb Sinéad Cusack) – who had been the lead medical researcher at the Larkhill concentration camp, where V had been subjected to illegal drug trials and left physically disfigured and psychologically shattered.
