Movies Worth Watching: V For Vendetta

Last night Ashley and I watched this movie, and quite frankly, I wasn’t sure what to expect – I never saw it in theatres, and didn’t recall much about it. Originally a comic book series by Alan Moore (now collected as a graphic novel), the Wachowski brothers (of The Matrix fame) adapted the comic into a screenplay, and the movie was directed by James McTeigue (who was an assistant director on two Matrix films). Starring Natalie Portman as Evey Hammond, Hugo Weaving as V, Stephen Rea as Inspector Finch, and John Hurt Chancellor Sutler, V for Vendetta is a gripping movie with significant political ideas that are very relavent in our current times. I didn’t know who was in the cast other than Natalie Portman, so when watching the film I kept trying to place V’s voice – which had tremendous character and power – but couldn’t. It wasn’t until the last 20 minutes of the movie, when V gives a particular speech that falls into a more drawn-out delivery of vowels (Mr. Aaaaanderson), that I figured out it was Hugo Weaving behind the mask. He does a superb job of delivering emotion without relying on facial expressions, a feat not many actors can achieve. Natalie Portman does a credible job as well, though I never quite believed her British accent. The cinemetography was superb, the music was excellent, and the action scenes were gripping.

This is definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen in some time (Ashley concurs) – and, interestingly enough, the HD-DVD version is $3 less expensive than the standard DVD version on Amazon.ca right now. Unfortunately we watched this in standard definition, but I’ve added the HD-DVD version to my wishlist and my second viewing will definitely be in HD-DVD!