V for Asininity

It was supposed to display a manifest; "V for Vendetta" set in 2040 of totalitarian Britain was meant to be a timeless manifest against terrorism. No matter if the terror would come from a government or an individual fighter. The comic adaption turned out to be an unauthentic popcorn movie.

Even though the producer Joel Silver tried very hard to convince the potential audience that the screenplay of the famous Wachowski brothers will blow us away in the last few months, the realisation is uninspired. Self-evident a huge marketing campaign was started. Pages were filled with the news of the shocking new hair cut of starring starlet Natalie Portman. She shaved her head, what a sacrifice. What an important movie must that be she is giving her hair for? Being bold didn't help Natalie Portman at all to be any convincing in her role of a young working-class woman named Evey, who is rescued from a life-and-death situation by a masked man known only as V. Portman seems to have the "Dakota Fanning Syndrom" which implies to look with innocent wide open eyes always a bit desperately straight into the camera. That's it. Even after poor Evey got tortured by her master and should have gotten a glaring change of mind she doesn't adapt her play at all.

The movie itself is just a big bang. Lot's of throats are cut, a few buildings blasted and we find a slight will to underlay all this with a political message. It's a bit of Hitler combined with some terror fear and a few historical reference spiced with Hulk and Zorro .

Anne von der Goenne

© Berlinale Talent Campus 2006