X
- 2004
- R
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation (MGM)
- 1 h 33 m
- 2004
- R
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation (MGM)
- 1 h 33 m
Summary A love story set in an eerily possible near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints. [United Artists]
Directed By: Michael Winterbottom
Written By: Frank Cottrell Boyce
- 2004
- R
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation (MGM)
- 1 h 33 m
- 2004
- R
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corporation (MGM)
- 1 h 33 m
Code 46
57
5.3
Where to Watch
Summary A love story set in an eerily possible near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints. [United Artists]
Directed By: Michael Winterbottom
Written By: Frank Cottrell Boyce
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
57
42% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
52% Mixed
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
6% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 33 Critic Reviews
57
42% Positive
14 Reviews
14 Reviews
52% Mixed
17 Reviews
17 Reviews
6% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Provocative, quietly erotic, deeply romantic, and slyly witty (a cameo by a giant of punk rock is funny at first sight, and funnier still when you figure out the joke it's making), Code 46 is a very effective antidote to summer blockbuster bloat.
Updates a classic premise -- the struggle for personal freedom -- by pairing it with ethical and moral quandaries.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 User Ratings
5.3
33% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
40% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
27% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 15 User Ratings
5.3
33% Positive
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
40% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
27% Negative
4 Ratings
4 Ratings
I'm a pushover for romantic movies and this one did the trick. The plot was interesting but only so much in trying to figure out whether there was going to be a happy ending. This probably doesn't do justice to the technical aspects of the plot though. Unlike bladerunner, the future presented here is a much more sterile, and perhaps, gentler view of "control" by government. Even the act of exile is a seemingly more humane form of punishment though one would question **slight spoiler potential follows** whether the psychological burden of it is perhaps even more painful. I found Robbins and Morton to be a believable pair. I've always found Morton to be irresistible in these roles. Maybe it's the vulnerability she exudes, maybe it's the acting. Or maybe it's because she isn't one of those glamor stars who we all get tired of seeing. She isn't perfect, but maybe that's why she's beautiful. Like the ending, I will miss this film.
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Contrary to expectations, I did not find Code 46 to be a dark thriller. Rather, I found it to be rather light when compared with THX1138 or 1984. Overall, the film has a strange vibe to it that is romantic, pensive, mysterious, fatalistic. Unsure what to think of it, though it is certainly a cut above the B-movie I had been expecting. All around Code 46 has solid acting and directing with some interesting concepts.
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It all contributes to a vision of the future that is as haunting as it is dispiriting.
Late in the day, Code 46 bursts its chemical chains to become a convincingly irrational love story.
What this dystopia doesn't do is shock. In truth, Code 46 traffics in notions of speculative social fiction that are so familiar by now as to feel disconcertingly normal.
What doesn't spark is the love story. Morton still seems soggy from her "Minority Report" role as a drenched pre-cog. Who wants romance in a future where glum is the word?
Michael Winterbottom's Code 46 commits a Code 1 violation: It's boring.
Entertaining, thought provoking and has a truly beautiful score. OK not really a masterpiece but a film I could recommend to people who like hard science fiction and are sick of the Avatars, and Star wars which have been polluting the Science Fictilon Genre with pure stupidity and Flashing, bright lights.
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This is a film with sparse dialog and hardly any plot points and really very little to offer other than video clips of a modern metropolis which may be identical to Shanghai and vast stretches of desert which serve well as a metaphor for the bleak character of the film. I mean, I was twenty minutes into the film and still wondering what the film was about and now that I've seen the whole thing I'm wondering why anyone saw a need to put this on film.
Maybe it's a love story. I have a problem with love stories that do little or nothing to persuade me that the two characters on the screen see something really fascinating in each other and that's why it isn't just another one-night stand when they jump into bed and have what amounts to a one-night stand.
If it's supposed to be a cautionary tale about a dystopian future then it needs to work a lot harder than merely suggesting an "eerily possible near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints." I mean, how do you fly anywhere on the planet without going through checkpoints? Gee, whiz. And by the way China instituted its "One-Child Policy" 25 years before this film was released and that made it mandatory for women to be fitted with an IUD after one child and to be sterilized after two, and violators of the policy were subjected to forced abortions and heavy fines. So if you want to talk about oppressive governments you don't have to look any further than yesterday.
Not a film I'd recommend unless sitting around for hours on end listening to the rain is your kind of thing.
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It's set in the very near future. That's just as well because the budget of this film clearly could not stretch to anything beyond a few small interior sets. Although the very near future looks very similar to today, for out protagonists the usual dystopian restrictions apply. The back of the DVD describes it as a 'companion peice' to such films as Gattaca, Minority Report etc. For Gattaca, another very low budget sci-fi the comparison is *not* flattering. I guess the distributor is admitting it's not very good, but if you collecting the full set of dystopian movies, this needs to be filed on your shelf.
Not terribly thought-provoking, not at all erotic, disappointing all round
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Production Company
BBC Film,
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC),
Kailash Picture Company,
Revolution Films,
UK Film Council,
United Artists
Release Date Aug 6, 2004
Duration 1 h 33 m
Rating R
Tagline In the future...love is a dangerous game.
Website
http://www.mgm.com/ua/code46/
Awards
Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival
• 3 Wins & 4 Nominations
European Film Awards
• 4 Nominations
Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival
• 1 Win & 2 Nominations
