Code 46 (2004)

Love may be the most human thing we have left, even in a world that tries to control every part of it. Michael Winterbottom's "Code 46," written by his frequent collaborator Frank Cottrell Boyce, follows in the footsteps of "Gattaca" with a chilling, dystopian vision of a genetically regulated future. In this corporate-controlled near future, nations and languages have blended into a patchwork global society, and genetic defects are prevented through the strict enforcement of Code 46, which forbids relationships and conception between people who share 100, 50 or even 25 percent of the same DNA. Tim Robbins plays William Geld, an insurance investigator with a drug-enhanced gift for reading people, who is sent to Shanghai to track down whoever is forging the precious travel permits, known as "papelles," that control movement in an overcrowded world. His prime suspect turns out to be Maria Gonzalez (Samantha Morton), a free-spirited factory worker, and the two fall into a passionate affair that violates Code 46, with tragic and ultimately dehumanizing consequences. Fascinating as a "what if" scenario, it works better as a melancholy mood piece than as science fiction. The plot and characters are sometimes vaguely drawn, but it offers a haunting look at human longing in an age of oppressive globalization.