I first heard about this movie was while watching an episode of Ebert & Roeper a month or so ago. It looked interesting, even though they split on their recommendation. It looked like an intelligent science fiction film that wasn't interested in explosions, chases, and shootouts. It opened this past weekend at the local indie theater. So, i made my way up to give it a shot, the results were mixed.
We pick up the story with William Geld (Tim Robbins) traveling from Seattle to Shanghai to investigate some phony papelles. Papelles, we come to learn, are like passports only with more information. They are required if you wish to travel between the various zones of the future. He is investigating Maria Gonzalez (Samantha Morton). But instead of turning her in, he falls in love with her and embarks on a forbidden love affair, clearing her by framing someone else and helping her commit her fraud. Afterwards, he returns home to his wife, who he finds to be unstimulating and ends up traveling back to Shanghai to reunite with Maria. As they reunite, they must find a way to elude the authorities and end up in a free port of the future.
There are a lot of good ideas here, but the biggest problem here is the pacing and the exposition. The pacing is lethargic, very slow with lengthy sections which are just boring to watch, surprisingly though, there was enough of interest to keep the movie afloat. Exposition, on the other hand, was excellent for the characters but lacking for the setting. This acts as a double edged sword.
We have nicely defined characters, which grow as the film progresses. We watch as William is intrigued by the new surroundings. He is drawn to Maria, and into her world, it is something he had never experienced before and he likes it. Maria is someone who understands the desire, the need to do what you feel you need to do regardless of the consequences. The setting is an interesting beast unto itself. We don't know what year it is, or the political climate, but one can see that it is vastly different from the world we live in. The future has a new set of rules, genetic matching is done before you can marry or have children, in order to clean the gene pool in a way. There is also restricted access to different areas based on your status, hence the need for the fake papelles. World cultures have also mingled, language is peppered with words from other languages. I liked how a lot of this was left to the viewer to infer, how we have to accept a lot with little information, but at the same time I was interested in how this world came to be but was not given the information I needed.
The film's lack of special effects and world explanation leaves itself resting squarely on the shoulders of the two leads. Again this is two edged. On one side it is nice to see a science fiction set film that is written for the characters rather than the setting. We get to see all that these characters go through. On the other hand, an underdeveloped background can be just as detrimental as a underwritten characters.
The film was directed by Michael Winterbottom. Much of the film was shot on location in Shanghai and Dubai, where there is some interesting architecture not normally seen here, it helped lend a hand to giving us a near-future look. It was directed with a sure hand and the characters are given there space.
Bottomline. Intriguing ideas, but a little too much to the slow side. We get fine performances from Robbins and Morton, yet it could have been so much more. We should have gotten a better look at what a Code 46 really is.
Mildly Recommended.
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