There's a useful litmus test to find out if a science-fiction film was made by someone who actually understands science fiction: does it have both an interesting setting and an interesting story? There are plenty of examples of decently plotted movies that use a science-fictional setting as mere window dressing. Code 46 is an example of the other kind of relatively clueless science fiction: it has a very interesting and well-developed future world, but the filmmakers seem to have forgotten that we need more than that: we need an engaging story as well.

Code 46 gets one thing right straight away: it shows, not tells, when it comes to presenting its near-future, mildly dystopian setting. There's no "as you know, Bob" dialogue, with the film instead dropping little cues and clues about what life is like. We soon realize that it's a highly regulated society that makes use of relatively advanced biological technology, including cloning, as well as a very stratified society, with a sharp division between the haves who live inside the cities and the have-nots who live "outside" in what seems to be an ecologically devastated world.

One of the most interesting elements of Code 46's setting – an element that really gives it a distinctive, realistically futuristic feel – is that language has changed. The characters all speak English, but it has gone further along the path of assimilating words and phrases from other languages. The dialogue is liberally sprinkled with loan words from Spanish in particular, as well as French and other languages. It's easy enough to follow the dialogue, but the linguistic mix does add a nice sense of strangeness to the film.

Unfortunately, a film needs more than an inventive and well-fleshed-out setting to work, and Code 46 falls very flat in the story department. The general premise is that one character, William (Tim Robbins) falls in love with Maria (Samantha Morton), a woman he meets while on an investigation. The first half of the film doesn't present much more of a story than this, and it doesn't take long for the appeal of just seeing the characters navigate through this interesting future world wears off. When the story finally starts to develop, though, the plot turns out to be lame at best. Apparently William and Maria have run afoul of the Code 46 law, which makes it illegal for two people who share more than 25% of their genetic code to have children. I think this is supposed to feel like a very repressive law, but it's no more than an institutionalized form of the ancient incest taboo... and in a world with widespread cloning (meaning you could unknowingly meet a brother, sister, or parent equivalent) it would probably be a sensible public-health measure. So as far as being an ominous governmental force, the Code 46 part of the plot doesn't measure up.

In the last half hour or so of the film, what had been a thin but barely functional plot begins to develop large holes. The characters begin to act in peculiar ways that seem motivated by nothing more than the necessity to move the plot along, there are gaps in story logic, and the whole thing essentially falls apart, wrapping up with a fairly unsatisfactory ending.

The DVD

Video

Code 46 looks satisfactory, appearing here in an anamorphically-enhanced widescreen transfer at its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The print is clean and colors generally look fine, but there are some haloing effects and edge enhancement, and contrast tends to be on the too-heavy side.

Audio

The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is also reasonable but not exceptional. For the most part, it is well balanced and natural-sounding, but at times the dialogue sounds a bit flat and muffled, and on occasion it's hard to understand what's being said. English, Spanish, and French subtitles are included.

Extras

There's nothing particularly exciting here. "Obtaining Cover: Inside Code 46" is a standard promotional-style featurette, running 17 minutes with plenty of clips from the film. Four brief deleted scenes are included, adding up to barely two minutes of footage. There's also a five-minute sneak peek at Species III and trailers for Code 46 and other MGM films.

Final thoughts

Code 46 is an interesting setting in search of a decent story. The science fiction world presented here is intriguing and nicely detailed, reminiscent of THX 1138 but with a more realistic feel, but the plot is thin and full of holes. It might be worth a rental if you're intrigued by the genre and setting, but that's it.