Nitro Video Rating:
PURCHASE THE DVD: Code 46 (2003)

Beautiful cinematography and a moody score evoke some of the better science fiction movies of the past two decades (Gattaca and Until the End of the World come to mind), but this convoluted and morally ambiguous picture doesn’t deliver characters, story or even a compelling conflict. Whil strong on premise, Code 46 languishes in rich visuals from beginning to end, never letting the viewer in to the characters’ thoughts and feelings.

Set in a future where global communication has fused all world languages together, the borders of all countries appear decidedly closed off unless one can travel with a special visa. Samantha Morton plays a factory worker who manufactures said visas and then illegally sells off forged ones to people so they can travel wherever they wish despite potential medical dangers. Tim Robbins is an empathic investigator sent to Morton’s work to weed out who is creating the forged visas. The pair spend a night together, Robbins having lied to keep Morton away from persecution, and the result of their passion is a “Code 46,” an illegal coupling of two people with DNA that’s been deemed too alike to conceive a child.

Trying to understand both Morton and Robbins’s characters is infuriating. They stumble through the story without motivations, staring at one another like they see the face of God in each other’s eyes. It’s all terribly boring and uninvolving, and recommended only to those who really, really cannot find anything else to watch.

• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• DVD Release Date: December 28, 2004
• Run Time: 93 minutes