V for Vendetta (Dr. Worm)

Right from the get-go, V for Vendetta grabs both your brain and your balls and scarcely loosens its grip until the movie is over.

Set in a future dystopian London, V for Vendetta tells the story of its title character, V, and his attempts to blow up the government. We first meet V, the man in the mask, saving his partner-in-crime-to-be, Evey, from a group of “fingermen”—plainclothes policemen/thugs whose job it is to make sure people abide by the many, many laws of this totalitarian society. Upon saving Evey, V convinces her to accompany him to the rooftops, ostensibly to listen to a concert. And while Evey does hear music, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture pumped through the city’s PA system, it’s merely the incidental music of the main show: the demolition of the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court.

V’s maniacal laughter throughout this show reveals him for what he is: a terrorist. But V is not the villain of this film. He is the hero. In fact, this movie’s thesis is that terrorism is not always evil, and in fact it is sometimes necessary.

Needless to say, that hits us right where we live. “Terrorist” has become the new buzzword for everything we hate, like Communist was back in the 50s. V for Vendetta does not flinch from its controversial message, however, and in fact takes more than a few potshots—some subtle, some overt—at America’s current ruling regime.

Based on Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel of the same title, the movie was written for the screen by Andy and Larry Wachowski of Matrix fame. And V bears many similarities to The Matrix, from the stylized action to the heavy ideas to the subversive message. Unlike The Matrix, however, the Wachowski brothers turned over the keys to James McTeigue, making his directorial debut (though he was the Wachowski brothers’ first assistant director on The Matrix set). The rookie McTeigue does a bang-up job: The movie still has a distinctly Wachowskian feel, but McTeigue also makes it his own, eschewing the Wachowski brothers’ need to make everything artsy-looking and shooting a somewhat more straightforward film.

McTeigue is helped by two lead actors who make everything look easy. Hugo Weaving plays V, and somehow manages to convey convincing emotion despite being trapped behind a completely immobile mask. That’s not a feat to be underestimated—you try getting an audience to not only understand you, but like you, when they can never see your real eyes or smile. He has an able counterpart, as well, in Natalie Portman, who turns in what must certainly be her best acting performance to date.

Portman isn’t as handicapped by the mask as Weaving, but it makes certain aspects of her character tricky as well. To the movie’s credit, it never ignores either the benefits or the drawbacks that the mask provides. The mask gives V universality and an unrivaled ability to provoke fear, but for that he has to trade in intimacy and personality.

Which, to answer the naysayers who find the mask disconcerting, is really the point. You can’t become a cause and still remain yourself. V understands this, and seems to fight against it at times, but never denies it. In so doing, V—the terrorist—actually becomes the most unselfish character in the film.

It’s not a perfect movie, some early segments drag a bit, and V displays an unexplained adeptness at pretty much everything, as well as a peculiar inability to fail at anything he does. (I, for one, am glad that the terrorists that currently oppose our country aren’t as impossibly skilled as he is.) But even so, V for Vendetta still clocks in at a rock-solid 15.