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for Vendetta' foreshadows fascist United Kingdom
"V for Vendetta" Running time: 132 minutes MPAA rating: R
It is the year 2020. America is in the grip of civil war, plague and chaos. In England, people are under the thumb of a totalitarian despot named Sutler (William Hurt). Britons are constantly under surveillance; on the TV a religious-right demagogue rails against well, everything; food is rationed and curfews imposed.
This is the dystopian nearfuture presented in "V for Vendetta," director James McTeigue's adaptation of Alan Moore's graphic 1980s novel. The problem with this adaptation is that Moore's book was a leftist reactionary screed against the far-right policies of then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, while McTeigue's (and producers Larry and Andy Wachowski's) vision is a muddled mlange of allusions to current events, with hefty dollops of political bumper-sticker slogans that don't quite add up to a manifesto. If you were looking for an Idea Movie, this one isn't it.
Still, there's lots of stuff that gets "blowed-up real good" and some pretty nifty fight scenes to keep you awake between Hugo Weaving's (V) droning monologues, alliterative litanies and asexual seduction of Natalie Portman's character.
Portman gives a great emotional performance as Evey, the protg of the terrorist/freedom fighter V. Her only problem is nailing down that English accent. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's ... over there behind the couch. Go Natty! Fetch the accent! Gooood girl.
As the first of the big, dumb blockbusters to numb us this year, "V For Vendetta" will certainly please 14-year-old boys and stoner college freshmen who've just discovered that the dude on their T-shirt was some guy name Che and he, like, rocked and stuff.
For anyone else, it's just another noisy movie pretending to be relevant.
GRADE: C+
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