The muted atmosphere of “Code 46” is unlikely to satisfy science-fiction buffs or romance fans. Yet this movie falls across both categories in a mind-stimulating way.
The picture is set in a near-future of global warming (it looks more like global heat), cloning and restricted freedom. The title refers to a law that forbids sexual contact between two people related by cloning, which people can’t know unless they’ve had their DNA tested.
Tim Robbins plays an investigator named William, visiting Shanghai to investigate a leak at a company that makes “papelles,” highly prized travel visas. He’s taken an “empathy virus,” which allows him to instantly intuit things about people. Call it Kreskin-in-a-bottle.
Sci-fi meets romance: It may be too muted for its own good, but this futuristic love story has the feeling of a confusing but not unpleasant dream.
Rated: R for subject matter, nudity.
Now showing: Harvard Exit, Seattle.
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William quickly guesses the guilty party, an elfin woman named Maria (Samantha Morton). But he doesn’t turn her in. Although he’s a married man with a child, some mysterious force draws him toward her.
From there, things can only go badly. This is a world where actions are controlled by the state, and memories can be erased (“Eternal Sunshine”-like) in medical procedures.
The filmmaking team of writer Frank Cottrell Boyce and director Michael Winterbottom also did “24 Hour Party People” and “Welcome to Sarajevo.” They’ve taken an intriguing approach here: this world (which uses location shooting in exotic China and Dubai instead of elaborate sets) is not entirely explained, and the rules – except for Code 46 – are left to our imagination.
This may frustrate sci-fi mavens. At times it frustrated me. But the filmmakers want to concentrate on the central twosome, and their dilemma. We’re meant to understand the world around them as best we can, as though we were lost without our “papelles” and trying to survive. (One superb detail is the casual use of foreign words such as “salaam” and “chica” in people’s everyday English speech.)
On those terms, I think “Code 46” works. It begins to feel like a confusing but not unpleasant dream.
Tim Robbins is an offbeat choice for this, and his diffident manner doesn’t quite work for the love story (although it does make him appear realistically empathetic).
He’s onscreen more than Samantha Morton, but the movie revolves around her. The moon-faced actress from “In America” draws the camera toward her expressive eyes; almost every director she’s ever worked with gazes at her in close-up, and she’s often cast in roles of extreme sensitivity (“Minority Report,” “Morvern Callar”).
It’s no mystery why. She’s an amazing actress. She has some good lines here (“Everybody’s children are always special. It makes you wonder where all the ordinary grown-ups come from”), and Morton makes it feel as though she’s making them up on the spot.
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