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Rating: Suspended halfway between "The Sheltering Sky" and "Gattaca," and released quietly, the film portrays an impossible love story, set against an extremely evocative landscape: a collage of Dubai, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur; paired with austere London interiors.
It is a low-key future (without spaceships or the like) that inevitably recalls the one imagined by Aldous Huxley in "Brave New World," where cloning is the norm... A universe where guilt has surpassed the surface and reached the root, and where a suffocating solitude in relation to the city emerges prevalently, interrupted only momentarily by dreamy, sensual love scenes, grazing the viewer's senses. Interrupted again by the discrepancy between those who have and those who DO NOT; the latter confined to the "afuera": the shimmering, dusty outskirts surrounding the city: a container for those who do not possess the sufficient genetic qualities of those who inhabit the city (if I understood the plot correctly).
The film shares with its progeny of similar works the presence of repressive authorities; of which William (Tim Robbins) is a part, being tasked with investigating counterfeit "Papeles"; but ends up entangled in a clandestine relationship with the very person trafficking them (Samantha Morton), though with philanthropic purposes, and whom he should report. Added to this are viruses, with different functionalities, such as those that enable mind reading; hypnotize the code violators regulating with which partner one can have an emotional relationship, and which not; or selective memory erasure.
Also a cameo by Mick Jones, inaccurately singing the verses of one of his songs.
Apparently, many people managed not to appreciate this film, which in my opinion, however, should be considered among the best works created in the genre. Both protagonists are striking in the chemistry between them, also due to their experience in similar roles. I would also say the perfectly themed soundtrack is very interesting (obviously not classical).
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