Dystopia , as it were, is cited by various dictionaries as the antonym of Utopia. The London of the not-terribly-distant future presented by this thrilling flick is something that indeed fits this textbook definition of “Dystopian.” London is run by a government that has bears a terrifying resemblance to Nazi Germany. The mostly off-screen (but shown in some very well done mock international news sequences on televisions) US has collapsed into Civil War-like anarchy. These nasty Englanders now are subjecting random and LARGE groups of their populations to tortures and testings many of which involve the government's possible (probable!) tainting of the water supply. The main two characters involved in this surprisingly intelligent script — surprisingly because one would assume this is going be a bunch of action thriller nonsense dialogue on which to hang a lot of exciting popcorn-thriller-stunts and antics — are a fellow who stays masked in a Guy Fawkes costume permanently (Guy Fawkes being the famed English outlaw who tried to blow up Parliament — BIG SPOILER HINT: Keep that in mind), and a poor girl doing her part to try to rebel against all of this tyranny, losing part of her soul, part of her mind, and ALL of her hair in the process.

Now this sure as hell doesn't sound like a feel-good movie, does it? When even some of the (Spoiler again — but you can see it coming a mile away) triumph by the GOOD guys results in a whole lot of wholesale destruction — you do wonder if feeling GOOD about such plot machinations says much for your moral turpitude at the time — does this kind of ambiguity really make for a just rockin’ good time at the movies?

The answer to that query is the VERY surprising from my review title — a shockingly resounding yes. Very few times in the past decade have I gotten that classic rush , the one you may get from everything from classic westerns to Star Wars — that thrilling pulse of giddiness through seeing a great story executed in a great manner , that just makes you remember WHY you love movies.

(And WHY did I get to see this movie months before it opened so that I can write about it at the dawn of its wide release??... Again, I was VERY Blessed and lucky to see this as part of the AintItCoolNews/Alamo Drafthouse yearly 25-hours-plus film festival called Butt-Numb-A-Thon back in December !! This review is a continuing look at many of those movies , and for more of what I saw at this glorious event — see the links below!)

The concern of course is that if the reigning kings of “fantastic,” but usually morally empty and devoid-of-depth “big deal” movies, The Wachowski Brothers of Matrix trilogy fame (who both produced and wrote the script from a famous graphic novel), take on this subject matter — will they hit all the right notes? Are they going to take this frighteningly resonant idea of rebellion against ultra-conservative governments (a touchy subject for sure right now in the wake of what’s not only happening with the US Government, but what is also happening with many governments under the umbrella of the United Kingdom) and just treat it like a comic-book (literally), so that it will come off as irreverently offensive? OR are they going to be so busy trying NOT to do that, that we end up with some preachy, heavy-handed treacle? In my humble opinion, the answer to THIS question is another grand surprise of this phenomenal film — they DO indeed balance all of this pitch-perfectly while keeping it all mesmerizingly and again, shockingly, FUN.

The overview of exactly what goes on in this film's is relatively straightforward. Natalie Portman (in a dandy performance) is Evey, a normal, seemingly everyday girl who wants to try to do her part to rebel against the tyranny.... and of course consequently , because that’s what bad guys in good-guys-bad-guy movies do, gets in BAAAD hair-shaving-and-torture trouble for it. Through her involvement in said rebelling she gets hooked up with a fellow once known as Mr. Rookwood — who now is only known as V — who spends all of his time dressed up like Guy Fawkes, (played with surprising depth, dash and panache by Hugo Weaving), with clownish-smiling mask and all — who becomes a cause celebre as the heretofore unofficially crowned leader of resistance against the now-beyond-corrupt English government. Their eventual paring up not only gives the movie it’s sense of emotional center , but also sets up a lot of the philosophical and moral concerns about what’s happening on both sides of the totalitarian dilemma.

A lot of story generation comes from an interesting reveal (which I will not spoil here) of how Mr. R. BECAME Mr. V and what his history with the government torture/testing issues is and how this ties in to Evey. The “moral” story concerns from the fact that once the resistance starts to triumph, it has to be noted that basically what V and his growing posse of rebels, including Evey, are, is basically white-hatted (or masked-face) terrorists. This forces the main question of.. Are terrorists good, cheer-worthy people to emulate when your leaders have become quasi-Nazis? Do you have more moral right to kill at will and blow stuff up if you are one of the GOOD guys?

These kinds of questions — basically still left up in the air but not whitewashed or ignored — are why this film’s script is so engaging. These story matters are all issues that could be reduced to comic-book black-and-white pablum — the W brothers make this story responsible and adult — while still keeping all the “action thriller OH WOW this is fun” aspects intact.

The movie continues to dazzle and surprise with a number of shocking twists, only one of which I will hint at a spoilage thereof ... Just when you think poor Evey is down for the count and kidnapped, and basically done for, — the revealed true circumstances of who is responsible for said kidnapping and WHY — are a big time doozie. Some of this twist in the story is generated through a mysterious letter left from a previous prisoner that Evey finds during her incarceration. (Also a doozie is her screaming, understandable tantrum once said truth is revealed). There are other performances in this movie that come just THIS close to being over the top silly — but yet succeed in making the badness of the bad guys powerfully scary without the characters just dissolving into cardboard villainy. Of these other performances, the most prominent one is a nearly unrecognizable John Hurt as a borderline psychotic Government bad guy named Adam Sutler. Sutler seems like a rational, if evil, politico trying to pin all the social horrors for the press — then as said government starts to lose ground on “live” TV turns into a frothing nutcase. Stephan Rea, famous for having played “The Crying Game” and getting some shocks of his own, plays a middle-of the-road information seeker trying to make sense of what’s going on with both sides, before his allegiances are clearly revealed. These sideline performances certainly add color and depth to this very busy film, but the flick of course in the end belongs to, and hangs on, the excellent work of Mr. Weaving and Ms. Portman.

Again, another surprise factor is how compelling these main two performances are with such acting OBSTACLES thrown at Ms. P and Mr. W. While Natalie Portman has always been seen as a competent actress, it is undeniable that her dark, moody beauty has been part of what makes her so mesmerizing on screen. Not only does she not have her fancy alien hairdo like she did when she had to spout some of the most laughable dialogue in ANY universe in Star Wars: Episode 3 last summer, she always looks gaunt, beat up, eyes-dark-circled and this time has a hairdo that came out of “Jarhead” in this movie. Yet you still can’t take your eyes off her and the passionate, troubled sincerity in her portrayal is consistently gripping. Hugo Weaving on the other hand has always commanded the screen and stage in his performances with that undefinable, magnetic foreignness of being an “Accc-tthurrr” with evident classical training and "from-across the-ocean” élan. But here, save for a scene I wont spoil, he is trying to get across the film’s centerpiece character while CONSTANTLY dressed in a cape and MASK!! Yet, his joie de vivre, passionate commitment to what he’s doing and that these activities are on the side of good and RIGHT (against a RIGHT wing nightmare) — and his ability to communicate such with both understanding and lightheartedness, is perhaps the film’s true acting miracle.

Other nifty aspects of this grand movie include a cinematography that just makes you really feel like you are in the indeed BAD place that is London of the future with all its dripping rain on ruins, its destroyed landmarks , and the general sense of malaise where even the buildings and streets seem to be in pain. Not to mention that some of the most brilliant sequences take an ungodly risk of getting JUST to the edge of camp and stupidity — most notably the destruction of a certain landmark towards the end of the movie, which is set with VERY familiar “triumph” music (The 1812 Overture). This sequence is just on the verge of seeming so silly, hokey, and coldly irreverent that it could so easily come across as both offensive and laughable — yet this whole passage in the film is nearly transcendent. The fact that these moviemaking details themselves ALSO hit the exact right note is another reason this movie is so much more than your usual “Action Thriller.”

Controversy is also sure to arise after this film's release , and already has in a recent Entertainment Weekly article. Since this review is just my humble opinion — how many people will disagree with me on both sides? That either yes, this movie IS just too silly and takes a very serious social subject and makes a comic book spectacle of it — with detractors questioning “is this really the time to make a movie like this just for the fun of it, when it may stoke a number of sociological and sociopolitical fires that need not be poked more egregiously lest they become infernos?” Or , on the other hand, how many folks will not be swept away by the grandness of this movie and just see it as some sort of preachy, left-wing propaganda comic-book fantasy-come-morality-play?

The fact this movie WILL cause such thoughts is again why I think it’s so important and why it deserves to be a blockbuster. When is the last time you went to a movie not only thrilled with spectacle but actually provoked to have philosophical discussions afterward? Did you and your moviegoing buddies have a big round table on why or why not we should empathize with Darth Vader and not the rebels after Star Wars? Did you didactically pull apart the motivations between the ONE and the still-confusing set of baddies he was dealing with the Matrix movies? I thought not.

Finally , to spoil the moment this movie was just COMPLETELY sold to me... a little personal background. I collect a LOT of stuff: clocks, posters, candlesticks etc., V also lives in a “museum” of his own where he looks like he also spends a lot of time on eBay getting “stuff.” (Funny scream-out comment from buddies at this showing when his main room is first shown: “Dude, V’s house is just like Kel’s!!) Right before the end of the movie's climatic act of “good terrorism” where poor, beleaguered Evey has just been told by Mr. V. WHAT is about to take place — one of the things he has in his cool-a$$ place is an old-time jukebox. So... they are getting ready to initiate something DRASTIC (Witness: go way earlier in this review and see BIG SPOILER HINT) ..and what does Mr. V. Do?...

A la Fonzie from “Happy Days”, V gets the jukebox to start playing without actually putting a coin or anything in — and then sweeps Evey into a waltz as a Sinatra-esque crooner song begins to play. Needless to say, she is confused and appalled saying.. “um.. Um... what the.. Um... We are starting a revolution here! What the hell are you doing?” And in my personal BEST LINE of ANY Movie in the past decade (or MORE) Mr. V calmly and suavely says...

“Yes, but what is a revolution... without dancing?”

I literally started screaming with delight at such a pronouncement. And that moment epitomizes for me why this film is so phenomenal — all of these HEAVY topics, all of this spectacle — but still their movie takes time to give the main character enough shading that he can pull off a line like that and make it not only work, but SOAR into the pantheon of “greatest movie quips of all time.”

Regardless of whether you go in to this flick agreeing with me, or on one of the side of the coming detractors — this is a movie that is definitely a must-see. V will also stand for a VERY well spent nine dollars at the theater — to see a movie that will resonate with you in both through its visceralness AND its thought-provokingness long after.

review of King Kong

http://www.epinions.com/content_213987790468

review of Drum

http://www.epinions.com/content_213991460484

review of stunt rock

http://www.epinions.com/content_223447715460

Recommended: Yes