another lisa

On Saturday night I got to go to see this interesting movie. Sarah had told me that it was based on a "graphic novel" (aka comic book), so honestly I did not have high expectations.

I guess I expected it to be something between Spiderman and Aeonflux, which we had seen a month or two ago. Boy was I wrong.
(WARNING: SPOILER FOLLOWS)

This movie is a very interesting look at how the world could change at some point in the near future. Great Britain has become a totalitarian state, ruled by a small group of men (no women seen at all in power), who have control over every aspect of citizen's lives. They control all of the media, they "spin" every news story and everyone must stay indoors after dark. The people have been told that this is all for their own good and so comply for the most part with the new order. During the movie, there are many scenes which are eerily reminiscent of Hitler and his secret service military.

I would say it is not appropriate for children under 13, as they probably would not understand most of it. V's character is very developed - he goes around quoting Shakespeare and other literary greats a lot of the time. This movie is somewhat like "A Handmaid's Tale" in tone, but totally different storyline.

The movie starts out with someone (a terrorist) blowing up the old Bailey on Guy Fawkes day (November 5th). (There is some history explained to the non-British viewer). The head of the police (probably the former Scotland Yard) must investigate and find the terrorist, who has threatened to blow up the Parliament Buildings in one year.


During this excitement, we meet Evey, the main female lead. Natalie Portman does a great job playing pretty much the only woman in the movie (although we see women here and there in the populace and in flashbacks.) Evey is a witness to the initial bombing and thus presumably knows who the terrorist is.

Because of this, she is a target for the police investigation. But they don't realize that "V" the code name for the terrorist, was wearing a mask during the attack so that Evey actually cannot identify him. As they track her down, V rescues her from their likely detention and torture of Evey, and he takes her home to protect her. When Evey enters his secret world, at first she believes that she is a prisoner, but then she realizes that V is actually a good person, who has good reason to fight against the government.

Meanwhile, the police investigator is discovering that the government he is working for is hiding some very serious secrets. As he puts the pieces of a huge puzzle together, he realizes that everything he has believed in for 27 years is built on a lie. He uncovers government operations that pre-date the current government coming into power, which involve the detention of anyone who is "different" (ie. gays, lesbians, Muslim or other non-Christians) and horrific medical experiments which take place in these detention centres. There is also evidence that mass experiments have been done on the population in partnership with drug companies out to make big profits.

Lots of fireworks follow as we arrive on the next November 5th. Although there is some violence and horrific flashblacks, except for one scene near the end, I did not find it too violent. Basically the bad guys get what they deserve and the people are victorious in the end. If you like movies about free speech and democracy, this is a pretty good bet.