Young Evey Hammond (Portman), meanwhile, is heading out into the night for an unknown assignation. She's taking a risk, as it's after curfew. So when she's confronted by government "Fingermen," she thinks that's what it's about. Wrong. The secret policemen have something more carnal in mind. Fortunately for Evey, V happens by. With no mercy, he dispatches the government agents and introduces himself to Evey with a flourish of Shakespeare and alliteration. "Are you, like, a crazy person?" she asks, though grateful for her rescue. Come, V says. I have something to show you.

On the roof, V shows Evey the dome of the Old Bailey courthouse building. As midnight strikes, music begins in the streets: a banned recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. As the cannons ring out, the Old Bailey explodes in a flash of flame and fireworks! Rockets shoot into the sky, forming a flaming "V."

Later, at Evey's job at the British Television Network, government police show up. Investigating the terrorist bombing, they have traced Evey to BTN and are about to take her into custody. But V is there: Again, he rescues her, but not before broadcasting a manifesto to Britain's huddled masses: There is something terribly wrong with this country, he says.

V takes Evey to his underground lair, chock-full of books and art. He calls it the "Shadow Gallery." Evey is safe. But, she realizes, she's also a prisoner. And if she leaves, the government Fingermen will surely arrest her and make her disappear, as they did her parents. What has she got herself into?

Not the graphic novel—but novel

V for Vendetta is the much-anticipated movie version of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's acclaimed graphic novel (don't look for Moore's name anywhere in the credits, however; he famously asked that he not be associated with the movie in any way). It preserves the graphic novel's premise and much of its story, many of the incidents and characters and the overarching themes, but it also stands on its own as an impressive artistic achievement.

McTeigue, directing from a script by Larry and Andy Wachowski of the Matrix films, has created a movie that is at once a thrilling superhero adventure, a touching character drama, a pointed social commentary and an unsettling examination of the political uses of violence.

The Wachowskis have altered, streamlined and updated Moore's narrative, adding references to Iraq, terrorism and the electronic surveillance of civilians that are hard to miss. They also alter the message of Moore's story to fit the argument that fear—of a manufactured terrorist scenario, for example—is what can drive a society to adopt militaristic ways and surrender civil liberties.

Otherwise, the film attempts to preserve the ambiguities of Moore's story. Is V a heroic freedom fighter when he says, "People should not be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of their people"? Is he a homicidal terrorist when he says, "With enough people, blowing up a building can change the world"? When Evey undergoes her transformation, does she regain her soul without fear—or transform into a potential suicide bomber? If the film has a fault, it's that it takes sides: V is more heroic in the movie than he is in the book, and McTeigue's and the Wachowskis' sympathies seem clearly to lie with him.

In any case, the complex and intellectually challenging themes take wing in the performances of Weaving, who manages to charm and seduce with only his voice and carriage, and a dazzling Portman, whose Evey Hammond tears your heart out. (In one of the improvements to Moore's novel, the Wachowskis have wisely chosen to give this Evey a bit more spine.)

The movie does not disappoint as a Joel Silver action movie either. McTeigue, the second-unit director on the Wachowskis' Matrix films, has learned from his masters, with swift and effective fight sequences and well-staged action. The only flaw in these scenes is the overly bombastic score.