Code 46

Mark discovers that 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.

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

(c) Mark R Leeper 2004 - all rights reserved

---

	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 - September 2004

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

Steve Cockayne Interview Steve talks about his novel Wanderers and Islanders, being influenced by C.S. Lewis and Herman Hesse, and working as a TV cameraman, a puppeteer, and dabbling in hypnotherapy (AUTHOR INTERVIEWS) Tanith Lee Interview Author Tanith speaks with SFF literary agent John Jarrold about how people are the starting point for her fiction, tackling pirates with Piratica, and being influenced by Rider Haggard, Viereck and Eldridge. (AUTHOR INTERVIEWS) Eurocon 2004 Radi Radev reports from this year's European Science Fiction Convention. While the convention was first created in 1972 in Triest, Italy, this was the first year it's been hosted in Bulgaria. (CON REPORTS) Westercon 2004 Mark reports on the movies at Westercon. The trailers seemed to be better accepted by the audience than they have been at recent Worldcons, while the presentation was a little more polished - and the films seemed of a higher quality. (CON REPORTS) Code 46 Mark discovers that 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. (FILM REVIEWS) The Bourne Supremacy Robert Ludlum's mysterious United States government assassin again returns to the big screen from what some assumed and hoped was death. Again we have a complex plot with twists and doublecrosses. Again the infallible and deadly assassin is pitted against the agency that made him what he is. (FILM REVIEWS) Offworld Report: Science Fiction and Fantasy: September 2004 Interviews with Keith Brooke, Geoff Ryman, Gerry Anderson and the co-producer of the new Sapphire and Steel series, short fiction by John Grant and Walter Jon Williams, and Locus Magazine's excellent primer on genre audiobooks. (NEWS) Offworld Report: Weird Science: September 2004 The latest tiny flying robot, why Martian astronauts may need replacement body tissue, harvesting helium-3 from the Moon, the threat to humanity from giant tsunamis and super volcanoes, and the possibility of life on Venus. (NEWS)

CHAT ABOUT THIS STORY

Advertise Here (More ...)