So alike you can’t tell them apart.
Code 46 (2003) is an odd science fiction film concerning a future in which one must be ‘covered,’ to have ‘papeles’. What is covered? It’s not entirely clear from the movie, although it appeared to have something to do with health coverage, and a little online research confirms what we were able to pick up from the movie.
Naturally, there are haves and have-nots, and there is the illicit traffic one might expect in such documents between the two groups. William is an inspector, whose main gift is the ability to read minds, if only partially, because of an ’empathy virus.’ Sent to Shanghai to investigate possible fraudulent activity, he finds the runner of the papeles, a woman by the name of Maria, and impulsively declares her as not involved. They end up getting to know each other, and then sleep together. Upon his return home to his family, his boss calls up and says he must return to Shanghai, because there’s been a death in Delhi, and his papeles originated in Shanghai, leaving the company responsible because the papeles itself is not fraudulent, only the fact that the man had papeles is wrong.
Upon his return, Maria is gone from her apartment. He tracks her down, mystified, at a clinic, and she doesn’t remember him. Using his position as an inspector to get information, he discovers that she has had an abortion and her memory of him has been removed. Why? Because their sexual contact violated Code 46.
Code 46 basically forbids incest.
Soon enough, William comes to understand that their mother was one or two of a set of ten clones, and that their love is forbidden. Now in a dusty little city on the island of Jebel Ali, they once again make love, and then William calls the authorities and confesses to the crime. Pursued and caught, his memory of Maria, the love of his life, is wiped and he is judged to have been unduly influenced by the empathy virus – and therefore it is not a criminal act.
An exploration of how future technologies may interact with the taboos of today, it was just a little too incomprehensible to be compelling. Love stories often are, as the chief component, love, is not a rational element. This means it can be conjured out of the air by the storytellers as an arbitrary, inarguable element, and that can be a curve ball for an audience trying to make sense out of a future containing elements they’ve never thought about.
Technically, it’s a well done and well acted movie, but I was subconsciously confused that in this future, of which there are many hints that population has grown ever higher, it seems like William is often alone, whether he’s traveling or working or looking for Maria. Wouldn’t it be a bit more jostly?
But if you’re in the mood for a bit of stream of consciousness, a bit of future (which may be unnervingly closer than we’d like), and a bit of lust and love, this might be for you.
