V for very good

I went to see V for Vendetta this afternoon. From what I understand, the graphic novel it was based on was written in responce to Margaret Thatcher's role as Prime Minister of England back in the eighties. The film apparently strays from the source material enough that the man that wrote the graphic novel has asked that his name be removed from the film. While I get why he would do that, in principle...but this is a great movie nonetheless.

However, the filmmakers fell victim to one of the pitfalls of politically-charged storytelling: It is impossible to make a film denouncing the use of propaganda without it feeling like propaganda itself. Most of the film's themes seem so possible it's almost scary: A totalitarian government in England, loss of civil liberties, domestic spying, the United States at war with itself, homosexuality and any non-Christian religion is outlawed, and every citizen seems to know that the information their government is feeding them is a bunch of bullshit. I feel sorry for that one guy in Michigan who has/had the bad luck to sit next to Michael Moore during a screening of this film. Don't get me wrong, I love Michael Moore...I just wouldn't want to have to sit next to him when he starts foaming at the mouth.

Every kind of conspiracy theorist will have a field day with this flick. Some will draw comparisons to the Bush admisitration, some to Saddam Hussein or maybe the Taliban. Me personally, I'm not one to believe in conspiracies, but as a smoker, I was noticing that the evil govermnent's double-cross emblem looked suspiciously like the American Lung Association logo.

This is the eighth film I've seen with Hugo Weaving in it, and in those eight films (including two trilogies), he has played a drag queen, a computer program, an elf and a masked vigilante. If you graph the way he's going, he'll eventually out-weird Gary Oldman. In V, he manages to generate a very complex character with real charm and emotion with his face completely covered by a mask the entire time.

Natalie Portman knocked it out of the park, as always. She's one of those rare actresses that can grab my attention no matter what the role, and make me totally forget what she's done before. Christ, even when I see Jodie Foster do something like Silence of the Lambs, there's part of my brain that flashes back to Freaky Friday. You'd think being as much of a Star Wars freak as I am, I'd be saying, "Why are they shaving Queen Amidala's head?"

I think one thing that impressed me most of all in this film is that, for once in a action movie, everything was used to further the plot in some way. The special effects were great, but there wasn't anything that just screamed LOOK AT WHAT OUR EFFECTS GUYS CAME UP WITH...PRETTY COOL, HUH?