Thumb suckers of the world unite, the most hotly anticipated film of the, er, week, "V for Vendetta," has arrived, complete with manufactured buzz and some apparently genuine British outrage. Concocted by the same team behind the "Matrix" franchise, this future-shock story about a masked avenger at war with a totalitarian British regime was drawn along the usual Orwellian lines but is clearly meant to have more than a passing resemblance to our current political environment.

Is the man in the mask who wants to make Parliament go boom Osama bin Laden or Patrick Henry? Or just a Phantom of the Opera clone who likes to kick back to the cult sounds of Antony and the Johnsons? Your guess is as good as mine, and I've seen the film.