Code 46

CODE 46 is a sci fi love story starring Tim Robbins (who won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "Mystic River" this year) and Samantha Morton (nominated as Best Actress for "In America" ).

Directed by Michael Winterbottom, Code 46 is written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, who has now collaborated on five of Winterbottom’s films, the others being "Butterfly Kiss", "Welcome to Sarajevo", "The Claim", and "24 Hour Party People". It’s set in the near future and combines elements of a love story and a film noir thriller as it explores the emotional consequences of human cloning.

In a world that seems reminiscent of 1984, rules prevent certain people falling in love if their DNA doesn’t correlate. It’s a world in which overcrowded cities are guarded by high-security checkpoints whilst surrounding desert areas are peopled by non-citizens, their lives restricted by their lack of 'papelles' (a form of insurance cover, passport and visa rolled into one). Seattle-based Pinkerton detective William Geld (Tim Robbins) flies to Shanghai to investigate fraudulent papelles emanating from the Sphinx insurance agency, but falls in love with a worker he suspects, Maria Gonzalez (Samantha Morton).

Closing the case, he returns to his wife and son in Seattle, but is sent back to Shanghai when one of Maria's clients dies whilst using a fake set of papelles. Arriving in Shanghai, he finds himself irresistibly drawn into a dangerous relationship with Maria.

Impressively filmed on location with an evocative score, Code 46 appears to have a lot going for it, but there’s a better film here trying to get out than the one that is actually shown. Visually it looks good, and the ideas about a forbidden love affair are attractively Orwellian, but the plot doesn’t stand up to closer scrutiny leaving you feeling in the end, that its too confusingly handled for its own good.

Matt Arnoldi