nan | 楠木

I am feeling quite contradicted at this film. On the one hand, the film has a gripping flow, and I paid almost full attention throughout the whole 2 hours, which is something I’ve not done in a while now (compared to the likes of 16 Blocks and Inside Man).
On the other hand, though, the storyline does feel a bit unsatisfactory as a whole. It’s not an issue of plot holes; plot holes are somewhat irrelevant in a film like this. It’s the fact that the film is loaded with all kinds of political and social messages, and I kept wondering what was the point that the makers had in mind.
It seemed that they had no point intended; the film was quite a free flow of ideas, nothing really original (political freedom, terrorism, clash between religion… basically the main issues of the world today). The way that the film portrays a terrorist as the protagonist was of course quite controversial, given the recent affairs.
In terms of the cast and production, my only objection is that Hugo Weaving, who is such a talent, is given so little room to express himself. As the main character, V, he wears a mask throughout the film, and therefore has no facial expressions whatsoever. This obviously hinders the chemical reaction between V and Evey, the female lead played by Natalie Portman.
As a closing remark, I do think this film is one of thsoe films that needs to be viewed more than once, so that the real picture can be seen.
8/10