Remember, remember the 5th of November...

V: This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is it vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished, as the once vital voice of the verisimilitude now venerates what they once vilified. However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose vis-à-vis an introduction, and so it is my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V.

We saw V for Vendatta on Sunday afternoon in a mercifully quiet and local Odeon here in Beckehnham. There were maybe ten people in all. Grown-ups all, people of a certain age...okay, dammit, they were all late twenties, early thirties, maybe even older. My point being this:

This movie is not a kiddies flick...a teenager smooch movie or one of those made for action junkies. It is a fantastically satirical and bleak look at a an alternate Britain under the the leadership of an odious man called the Chancellor. V's story, and that of Evey (Natalie Portman who is way too pretty to be allowed out of her house) is heartwrenching and beautiful and stark and scary all at once. Yes, I will admit it. I sobbed at the end - like I usually do. I am a big girl's blouse.

The fact that 98% of the film was shot on location in London gives it a genuine feel for the city. The street scenes in Trafalgar Square and the big screens over on Piccadilly had my hair standing on end - I walk past these places every day so it was really a shivery moment to see them on screen...reflecting a totalitarian big brother government. It really made you think.

V's character played by Hugo Wearing (Elrond in LoTR and Agent Smith in Matrix) absolutely shockingly shines as the mysterious V. I have never read the graphic novels so I had no idea what to expect. I think this was a good thing as I had no preconceptions about the movie, at all. I was utterly swept away by it. I would love to go and see it again as there are so many different things to watch - the nuances and the sets and scenery. It really makes on think that what would have happened, at that one point in history, that crucial turning point, if something had gone the other way. How easily the world could have been turned on its head.

Good stuff. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Five out six stars.