Australian thriller 'The Code' brings to mind the classic BBC thriller 'Edge of Darkness', with its story of nuclear secrets, dodgy corporations and untrustworthy government. But we make dramas differently now, and the pace is much faster - which is not altogether a bad thing, although the slick graphics and camera-work are sometimes distracting. There are also some disappointing clichés: the genius hackers who can do just about everything, and the expository graphics that the computers conveniently display for the sole purpose of telling us that they're currently being hacked. Another point of critique is that, apart from the good guys, just about everyone else seems utterly ruthless and violent, in a way that slightly beggars belief: our heroes are asked to make constrained choices, but the motivations of the villains are seemingly explained by villainy alone. That said, the plot is both superficially clever and substantially intelligent, and there's some genuine emotion in the relationship of the central protagonist and his socially limited brother. And for Europeans like me, a chance to get a glimpse of the bleak beauty of the Australia itself.
