Pidgin

What if fate steers you to what isn't allowed? What if that is also morally unacceptable? Tim Robbins' character is faced another question, what if you want it too?

This is a subtle movie. The questions, they aren't broached, they aren't asked directly, they aren't even minded much. Everything is done with a slight air of matter-of-fact-ness. Coupled with the mutedness is a bit of distance, even alienation.

We get shots of a compound metropolis edited from establishing shots of Shanghai, Dubia, and a number of other locations. This establishes a foreign, and legitimate, fututropolis that is both unfamiliar yet apparent enough in its roots to have a slightly stronger impact (than a wholly new landscape). That editing, the pidgin that has words you don't quite catch, and the handheld (-like?) camera work sets our two central leads against a backdrop that is unforgiving. They're alone.

Tim Robbins is an inspector who uses an 'empathy virus' to help him read people. Samantha Morton is a suspect who he takes a liking to. Robbins is married but that's easily forgotten in a foreign city miles from home, where no one knows you. Morton reciprocates and they part ways. All the while, since the title card, Morton's been narrating in the past tense. So she doesn't die, maybe. But what happens from now to when she is narrating?

There are hints and you know what's up before the two leads. You look on at their adventures, how they deal with conflict, etcetera. This is really more of a mood film than a story film. The aces are there. That isn't to say there is no story, or that there is one but it's horrible. It's just a bit of a low. You figure things out much earlier and surprises and far between. The story also isn't something very novel. It isn't used to bits, but when I figured out what was happening (I go into movies with as little plot as possible), it didn't make me restless with interest.

(Code 46 - Michael Winterbottom)