Full Review

As every British, if not American, schoolboy knows, Nov. 5 commemorates the infamous day in 1605 when Guy Fawkes planned to blow up Parliament.

He failed and was executed. But the masked antihero known only as "V" in "V for Vendetta" (Warner Bros.) intends to follow through on Fawkes' intent. Such is the premise of this provocative futuristic thriller.

Fawkes' cause was repression of Catholicism, though his misguided actions only made things worse. V is an opponent of a modern Orwellian tyranny. England is under a totalitarian regime headed by Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt), who barks orders from a giant monitor while his cowering advisors -- Chief Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea) and his lackey Dominic (Rupert Graves), Dascomb (Ben Miles), chief of propaganda, and Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith), head of the secret police -- scramble to do his bidding.

Hugo Weaving is the sympathetic voice of V, who wears a sinister Guy Fawkes smiling mask throughout the entire film. Despite his violent deeds, we peg him as more "good" than "bad" early on, when he comes to the aid of British Television Network employee Evey (Natalie Portman), as she's about to be roughed up by Sutler's thugs.

Grateful to V, she accompanies him to his rooftop where, to the strains of the "1812 Overture," he blows England's famed courthouse, the Old Bailey, to smithereens.

Evey is remarkably accepting of all this, due (we later learn) to her parents paying with their lives for their dissident activities. Which is why when V is apprehended after turning up at the BTN to wreak havoc, Evey aids his escape, the act branding her as his accomplice.

But he has no compunctions about violently dispatching characters such as Lewis Prothero (Roger Allam), the BTN's "Voice of London," a mouthpiece for the corrupt government, or later, a lecherous Anglican bishop (John Standing), whom he snares using Evey -- posing as a schoolgirl -- as bait.

Stephen Fry plays Gordon Dietrich, a colleague who has private reasons for fearing the government: homosexuals are outlawed under Sutler's rule, as illustrated by a sidebar flashback about a lesbian couple who apparently met a violent end.

Director James McTeigue, working from a Wachowski Brothers adaptation of Alan Moore (uncredited by choice) and illustrator David Lloyd's graphic novel, has crafted a reasonably intelligent political allegory, the usual improbabilities aside, with emphasis on character development, ideas, and even a bit of romance, not mindless violence. The vigilante exploits are handled with relative restraint given the genre.

The faceless Weaving works wonders with voice and body language alone. Portman makes a spirited heroine. The British supporting cast is first rate, Pigott-Smith an especially flavorful villain, and Sinead Cusack superb as a coroner with a sinister past.

Though vengeance is, of course, unequivocally incompatible with Catholic teaching, the film makes clear that every one of V's victims was, at least, a perpetrator of some heinous action. V is, at heart, a high-tech Zorro or Robin Hood.

The film's political overtones are obvious. "America's war grew worse and worse," we learn by way of backstory, and Sutler's repressive measures were only "in the name of national security." But despite the subtext, this is very much a fantasy world.

At times, the film feels long and a tad repetitive with, for instance, one too many scenes of Hurt's video image. But overall, "V for Vendetta" is absorbing, and its theme of the individual's responsibility in standing up to tyranny -- while questioning the moral limits of opposition -- is worthy, and stops short of imparting a universal anti-authoritarian message.

The film contains some discreetly handled violence with bloodshed, a hanging, scattered profanity, rough and crude language and expressions, minor lesbian-themed flashback and implied gay male character, corrupt Anglican clergyman, attempted rape, sexual innuendo, fleeting background sexual photos and drug use. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

Movies have been evaluated by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's Office for Film and Broadcasting according to artistic merit and moral suitability. The reviews include the USCCB rating, the Motion Picture Association of America rating, and a brief synopsis of the movie.

The classifications are as follows:

• A-I -- general patronage;
• A-II -- adults and adolescents;
• A-III -- adults;
• A-IV**
• L -- limited adult audience, films whose problematic content many adults would find troubling. L replaces the previous classification, A-IV.
• O -- morally offensive.