Code 46

In this movie Mark finds a very odd piece of science fiction; it is a film with some very nice material that tries some interesting ideas, but ultimately Code 46 fails to capture the viewer.

CODE 46 (film review by Mark R. Leeper): Rating: 0 (-4 to +4)

CODE 46 is a very odd piece of science fiction. It is a film with some very nice material that tries some interesting ideas, but it fails to capture the viewer. Its flaws outweigh its virtues. It is an extrapolation of the global community twenty years into the future.

The world is very different and the differences are often not explained. Giant cities now seem to have the status that countries do today. Global warming has turned most of the rest of the world into a desert. (Much was filmed in Dubai, which stands in for Shanghai.)

Rather than simply carrying identification people need to identify themselves with their insurance identification document, called a "papelle." Without a papelle you are exiled to the desert. William (Tim Robbins) comes to Shanghai looking for someone smuggling papelles out of a security building.

To aid in his investigation he has infected himself with an empathy virus that allows him to know everything about a person if they will just tell him one thing about themselves. (Oddly, some people are very surprised he has this power, though it seems to be common knowledge other places in the society. It is one more detail not well explained.)

With his power it does not take him long to track down Maria (Samantha Morton) who is his smuggler, but he is not sure he wants to turn her in. They are attracted to each other. But soon they find that their lives are connected by more than just their attraction.

The story telling is just not very involving, unfortunately. The plot just does not go anywhere.

The viewer is kept interested in the background of this world but there is little development of the foreground. The plot resolution seems to come out of left field just when the writer gets tired of writing.

Director Michael Winterbottom captures a style reminiscent of both BLADERUNNER and GATTACA, but those films had more interesting characters and action.

This film is static and uninvolving.

Mark R. Leeper

---

	FREE SF MAGAZINE Sign up for the Crowsnest SF e-magazine - full of funny reports and gossip. Be the first to find out about hot science fiction happenings & news!
more on the magazine... CHAT ABOUT THIS STORY NEWS ARCHIVE

OTHER CONTENT - March 2004

NEW. Add this news to your own web site for free!

Jensen Intercepted Author Jane Jensen on her near-future thriller, Dante's Equation. With clever science, baffling Torah code, devious secret agents and just a little bit of romance, what more could you want from a book? (AUTHOR INTERVIEWS) Embracing the Zahn Side Author Timothy Zahn interviewed on creating alien characters and races, his returning to the Star Wars universe, and his new young-adult Dragonback series ... that's fantasy you know, if the title wasn't a bit of a giveaway. (AUTHOR INTERVIEWS) The Troubles of Time Travel Anne Groell, senior editor at the Bantam Spectra publishing imprint, ruminates on the time in every science fiction editor's life when one has to edit the dread 'Time Travel' novel. Yikes, move over, Terminator ... (COMMENT) Finding Philcon Evelyn drops by Philcon 2003, and finds the answers to some thorny questions at the convention. Like why hasn't Lovecraft spawned a good movie yet, and just why do conventional SFF publishers miss so much of the good stuff? (CONVENTION REPORTS) The Offworld Report March 04: Science Fiction and Fantasy Interviews with authors Spider Robinson, Jack McDevitt, Rob Grant, Gene Wolfe, Robert Holdstock, is Asimov's magazine really full of stories that make minors quake and parents faint, and Robert Silverberg take a sophisticated look at Sophocles of Athens in, err, that old razz mag Asimovs? (NEWS) The Offworld Report March 04: Weird Science Is Europa corrosive, Black hole found ripping a star apart, a prescription for fixing NASA, the first robot Humvee (hello Mr Knight) and why the Pentagon is preparing for a war in space. (NEWS) Re-thinking Re-imagining (or B.S. Galactica) Joseph Nanni on why re-imagining classic SFF television series is enough to shrivel the soul of any true fan. Hmmm. Battlestar Galactica anyone? (COMMENT) A Problem with Fear Mark sits down for this latest SF movie and discovers a quirky science fiction film with some odd approaches, including a man-made 'fear storm'. (FILM REVIEWS) Code 46 In this movie Mark finds a very odd piece of science fiction; it is a film with some very nice material that tries some interesting ideas, but ultimately Code 46 fails to capture the viewer. (FILM REVIEWS) Six Lost Worlds: The Dramatic Adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Novel Mark imagines a place so isolated from the world that it was beyond the reach even of the forces of evolution ... where on one plateau deep in the Amazon rain forest there is a land that has withstood the ravages of time. Bring on those dinosaurs and prehistoric proto-humans. (FILM REVIEWS) Open Letter to an Open Enemy Scots SFF author Ken MacLeod has written science fiction novels which make frequent passing reference to the Soviet Union, Lenin, Trotsky, and communism. But he does not regard Lenin as a mass murderer, any more than he regards Cromwell, Napoleon, Lincoln, Roosevelt or Churchill as mass murderers. Read why here ... (COMMENT)

CHAT ABOUT THIS STORY

Advertise Here (More ...)