I saw this film at the cinema recently. It is written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, directed by Michael Winterbottom and produced by Andrew Eaton.
Code 46 stars Tim Robbins and Samantha Morton and it is a sci-fi romance, mixed with film-noir elements.
The basic plot is that it is the not-too-distant future on Earth and science has invented strange viruses and people need a single document to move from one country to another. Cities are over-crowded and they are guarded by high-security checkpoints. Without the right card - a "papelle" - people are left without anywhere to live or any real identity. The deserts are populated by people who have no ID. The card is basically ID and insurance and a Visa rolled into one. Code 46 is a law which prohibits people who have the same genes, even as little as a 25% match, from having a relationship.
Robbins plays William, a detective sent to investigate the trade in fake documents. He discovers Maria (Morton) is the person responsible but he covers for her as he is attracted to her. They embark on an affair with dire consquences. He does not report her crime and someone dies as a result of her fake ID scam. He then tries to track her down, only to find she has no memory of him or the time they spent together. It emerges that Maria and William share the same genetic code, somewhere down the line. Maria is narrating the story.
The film is quite scary in that the future world is rather similar to what we know. There are no aliens, space-ships or monsters. However, there is genetic cloning, restricted movement between countries and state-sanctioned relationships. The authorities recommend people get married on the premise that it's more commitment when they actually want to monitor private lives and they also dictate who can get married to whom. Is this so different today? It seems every aspect of the characters' lives is controlled by the state. There is even enforced abortion. William asks about "the baby" only to be told by a doctor there was no baby just a "pregnancy". It's cold and clinical. People even get injected with viruses to make them report Code 46 violations, for instance.
The immigration issue is especially telling as in the film, the system is the problem rather than people wanting to live somewhere else. People are bound by false borders.
There are some humourous elements, especially when William is trying to deal with bureacracy. Nina Wadia plays a tired hospital receptionist in a particularly witty exchange. We all have to deal with someone at a desk at some point! It's also funny when the apparent "illegals" have a nice side-line in Sherbet Fountains.
All of the actors work well with what they have. However, overall the film is rather slow and bleak and the love affair doesn't quite ring true. It's almost deliberately dream-like but it's a technique which didn't quite work. I also felt as though Maria looked rather young and the affair is a bit unsavoury, especially as William seemingly goes unpunished and the woman effectively gets the blame.
Other problems stem from the fact that a variety of languages seem to be used in this film. It's there to show how close the world might become if we had one passport to get everywhere but it adds nothing to the film in terms of comprehension.
The soundtrack is rather bland. Even the appearance of "Should I Stay Or Should I Go?" by the Clash doesn't save it and there's a pointless rendition of "No Woman, No Cry" by the 2 main characters.
I would recommend borrowing this Certificate 15 film. It is a good idea but it could have been carried out so much better.
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LikeGattacadid before it,Code 46extrapolates from the present to posit a chilling, ... more
dystopian look at our genetically regimented future. In the corporate-controlled, near-future scenario presented by prolific director Michael Winterbottom and his regula...
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Sep 16th, 2004
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