‘Code’ puts sci-fi spin on classic tear-jerker

Written by Noel Coward and directed by David Lean, 1945’s “Brief Encounter” is considered one of the most romantic movies ever made. Celia Johnson played the happily married housewife and mother who falls in love with a handsome doctor (Trevor Howard) after a chance meeting at a railroad station. Featuring the lush music of Rachmaninoff, it’s a four-hankie weepie.

“Code 46,” the latest collaboration between British independent film director Michael Winterbottom (“24 Hour Party People”) and screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce, puts a sci-fi twist on “Brief Encounter.” But in this futuristic tale, Winterbottom and Boyce spice the romance with film noir overtones and even an Oedipal complex.

In a future with a significant portion of the population artificially conceived or cloned, the film’s title refers to a law that strictly prohibits conception by couples who are 25% or more genetically similar -- in other words, related to each other. Screening is mandatory, but if they do conceive but were ignorant of their genetic relationship, it is not considered a crime. But if either individual is aware of their genetic kinship prior to conception, it is a criminal breach of the code.

In “Code 46,” Tim Robbins plays a family man who works as an insurance investigator. Sent to a city to investigate a case involving fraudulent insurance papers, he meets a young woman (Samantha Morton) whom he suspects is guilty of the forgeries. But when he falls in love with her, he accuses someone else of the crime and the two embark on a brief, passionate affair.

Opening Friday in limited release, “Code 46” is Robbins’ first role -- save for a cameo in “Anchorman” -- since winning the supporting actor Oscar this year for “Mystic River.”