We can all list a handful of romances doomed by genetic incompatibility - think Charles and Di, Jude and Sadie and, er, Den and Angie.

However, in the future, matchmaking glitches where ill-suited couples get to walk up the aisle (or do much else) are avoided by adhering to Code 46.

It's a regulation applied to oversee genetic engineering and the omniscient world government of tomorrow - the Sphinx - enforces it without favour.

William (Robbins) and Maria (Morton) fall foul of the code when they enjoy a brief affair after he is sent to Shanghai to investigate the company where she's a drone.

He discovers she's been trading on the black market in "propels" - travel permits which allow the user to dot around the globe to areas from which they are restricted.

However, love is blind and he falls for her before leaving her to return to his wife and kids in Seattle, little suspecting that she's pregnant. A Code 46 no-no.

Winterbottom's foray into a future dystopia where couplings have to be genetically approved, throws up some good ideas but never gels as a provocative whole.

The look and feel of the city - Shanghai is as much a star as Morton and Robbins - is beautifully rendered in washed-out sepia.

However, the two stars - he looming, she a half-pint - bring back painful memories of Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood presenting the Brit Awards.

Their mutual passion seems to have sprung out of nowhere and the romance, as it develops, is never more than mildly diverting, handicapping the dramatic thrust of the story.

It's a shame because there's a lot that's impressive - the Eno-esque score, the mixed dialogue of Spanish, French and English words, as well as the terrific use of locations.

However, what should be disturbing merely shapes up as plain daft.

Tim Evans