Review of Code 46 (2003) by Jack G — 02 Jun 2008

Probably one of the strangest concoctions that Winterbottom's come up with in his past decade of going around different subjects (i.e. British new-wave bio-pic, moviemaking satire, brutal docudramas, rock porno), but it's by far not his best.

Part of the problem is that he's trying to do two things with his style: make a Wong Kar Wai movie and an urban landscape ala Alphaville or Solaris's city scenes. It doesn't quite work, for all the effort he puts into it, because the script doesn't get past the big ideas (future with lots of surveillance, plus, y'know, easy incidents of incest). Just when you're about to be pulled in the material pulls a way a bit.

It goes without saying it's interesting to see Robbins and Morton take on such laconic and strange waters (for Morton it's also a reverse of her part in Minority Report in a way), but even they can only do so much before a slight dullness takes over the material (not to mention some really bad narration, speaking of WKW).

This all being said, it's almost worth it just for the Mick Jones cameo, one of the real (good) WTF moments in recent memory.