Why is it all sci-fi films about the future are either a bleak, apocalyptic nightmare with no hope or an existential navel-gazing art house connoisseurs' wet dream? Well, filmmaker Michael Winterbottom manages to squeeze both into a bizarre, and at times hard to keep tabs with, introspective pastiche of "Minority Report", "Gattaca", "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Blade Runner" and every other genre flick that has come down the pike in the past three decades.

Set in the near-future (presumably) with an Orwellian undercurrent of paranoia and suspicion interlinking, Tim Robbins plays an investigator named William of some sort for the Big Brother-type government who globe trots from Seattle to Shanghai to look into an ongoing plague of counterfeit "papelles" - traveling papers a la passports, et al. After questioning one manufacturer's employee, Maria (Samantha Morton), William suddenly finds himself drawn to her and they begin to have a heated affair in spite of his being a married man with a young son awaiting his return.

The titular omniscient regulation refers to the condemnation of procreation remotely related to incest - that is if for any reason one potential mate is of relation to the subject of their desire - the state will intervene to prevent this by any means necessary. What follows is a conundrum involving biogenetic encoding, cloning, the dream-like state of the subconscious (here it is manipulated by an 'empathetic virus' William uses to infiltrate himself, self-preservation and - oh yeah – passionate love).

Robbins gives his usually understated slightly sleepily smug performance as an odd sort of agent who has a unique gift of clairvoyance (he can guess a person's thoughts provided they offer one token bit of information about themselves) yet ironically cannot see the forest for the trees in his awakening moment of weakness by falling for the innocent Maria, who also seems to be unmoored by the proceedings at hand. Morton, one of the more versatile actresses of her generation, who resembles a mix of Jodie Foster, Gwyneth Paltrow and Mia Farrow, brings her equally subdued intriguing aspects to a multi-layered character who simply would like to have an identity.

The future conveyed here by screenwriter Frank Cottrell Boyce - frequent Winterbottom collaborator - is depicted as atypical with its bleak, barren desert landscapes, shanty-towns of illegal immigrants scraping to get by (in the opening William has an exchange with his driver that - paraphrasing- goes like this: "How do people live like this?"/"They don't'. They just exist.") and hi-tech identification security gizmos and computer screens in cold, metallic settings. What is original - albeit a bit annoying - is the sprinkling of various foreign phrases amongst its primary English language that has been blended into almost a Benneton ad with its international cast extras and secondary characters.

The film is a tad listless and occasionally threatens to veer off its trajectory of how we are all integrated yet seek individuality even though we are all essentially cogs in the wheel of life - if that isn't metaphysical then you simply won't get - or care to get - the at times potentially smart reflections of the current barometer of humanity: do we really know one another when in fact we may not recognize ourselves. Food for thought but like Chinese cuisine in an hour you'll be starving for a more cinematic comfort food.