Review of Code 46 (2003) by Rit Y — 03 Aug 2008

I had wanted to see this for a long time, and without ever knowing that it was a Winterbottom work. Considering how banal and dissapointing was his last offering 'Nine Songs', it was a surprise.

But to let this film speak for itself: it is the best examination of a near future reality that I have seen since 'Minority Report'. You may or may not care for the film's premise, though it's scarily prescient: a future society where the availability of medical insurance controls one's movements and choices, in extremely authoritarian mode.

I love anything Samantha Morton does (she's also in Minority Report). She inhabits very well the dim, muted Shanghai of this film and its invented, bizarre polyglot world (literally: characters code-switch in their lines between Arabic, Spanish and French alongside English).

The plot contains the semblance of a romance, conducted at futuristic pace. I won't say whether the romance is successful or doomed: but that interplay of two people in itself is so effective as to carry the film, beyond the visual and atmospheric delights.