A fascinating futuristic tale with a dire dystopia warning, it looks oddly beautiful, with a yellow colour scheme giving a glow to everything in front of the camera. As for the film itself, it is full of interesting ideas, and at least for the first half hour or so, these are well explored. The film unfortunately becomes lost in a murder plot towards the middle, and this stops it from exploring the most fascinating parts in more detail. Even so, it manages to be relatively gripping, and there is more than just the murder plot that is not all so good about the film. Michael Nyman's music is simply beautiful, but it is overplayed, and while on the subject of excesses, the sea symbolism could have been played down a bit more. The narration is not the best, neither is Thurman's performance, yet the film always manages to sustain a nature of enticement. The sets are great to look at, and Jude Law gives off an intriguing early performance. If not perfect science fiction, this is certainly worth a look.
