V for Vendetta

I don’t go to the theater much these days, and as such try to make my visits as meaningful as possible. Milca and I went to see V for Vendetta Saturday night, and we were not disappointed at all.

I knew nothing about the movie going in to the theater. This was a good thing, with one exception. I needed a little history lesson that the movie did an okay job of explaining, but I’d say that you should read that if you don’t know abything about Guy Fawkes. They cover it pretty early in the movie, so there aren’t any spoilers. Hell, this all happened 400 years ago, so I’d say it’s fair game at this point. Oh, and King Kong dies at the end of his movie, as does Mozart. Sorry.

Natalie Portman puts forth her best work, in my opinion. She was pretty good in Closer, but I had a hard time relating to or caring about her character in that movie. In V, she’s simply awesome. Her development is excellent, and her acting is superb. Apart from her, there are sporadic appearances by British actors you may have seen here and there, and then of course there is V himself, a “terrorist” to some, a revolutionary to others, who was played brilliantly by… I’m not going to say. Why? Well, because I didn’t know until I watched the credits roll, at which point I exclaimed, “Are you fucking kidding me?! It was him?! He’s such the bomb!” I wouldn’t want to deprive you the same reaction, so if you don’t know already, don’t go trying to find out.

The script was excellent, as was the cinematography. All around this was one of the better movies I’ve seen in a long time. I will buy it when it comes out on DVD, and I don’t regret seeing it in the theater, not even for a moment. Two thumbs way up.