Time for V

With the film's March 17 release coming up over the horizon, Time has two insightful reviews up -- both indicating the ball is already rolling with the discussion over V for Vendetta's place as a terrorism story. Richard Corliss, who loved it, comments on the very unique and proper time and place the movie's release holds. And he has lofty expectations for the public response it may stoke.

If a cheapo '50s fantasy called Invasion of the Body Snatchers could also be a rich parable of conformist paranoia, and if The Matrix could clue kids into mathematics and philosophy, then a film as bold and thoughtful as V for Vendetta is allowed to stoke a multiplex debate on the use and abuse of state power.

Lev Grossman's review also seems expectant of controversy and tackles the film's potrayal of a noble terrorist head on along with input from Natalie Portman.

Here's another tough question: whether V for Vendetta is the movie that will start that conversation. The kind of delicate ambiguity that Portman talks about is hard to achieve within the narrow constraints of a popcorn movie--morally speaking, they tend to be shot in black and white--and V may come off as a bit too noble for the movie's good.

Whether or not this film has the promotional backing and creative talent name recognition to pull enough people in to the theater and resonate enough to "start the conversation" as Grossman puts it, will remain to be seen. Then again, it might just be too edgy and scare people away. Whichever the outcome, the next month should be interesting to watch.