Enigma

Rating:
Summary: A facinating, literate film!
Review: While most movies that are released during the summer lack sophistication, great acting, and a plot, this film has them all: in spades. Endlessly interesting and complimented by John Barry's haunting score, "Enigma" delivers one cinematic pleasure after another.

The story, set in WWII, and based on real events, centers on Tom Jehrico (Dougray Scott), a brilliant codebreaker at Blenchly Park, who cracked the Nazi Enigma code. But now that code has been changed, and supplies that the British need for the war are in jeopardy. Not to mention the lives of the crews on those ships. Complicating matters is the disappearance of his ex-lover,Claire (Saffron Burrows), which has cast the shadow of suspicion over Tom as the possible traitor. Teaming with Claire's doudy roommate Hester (Kate Winslet), the two race to crack the code and unmask the traitor before hundreds of lives are lost. All the while, the mysterious Wigram (Jeremy Northam) seems to always be following them. . .

My summary of the plot simply doesn't do it justice. This film must be seen to be truly appreciated. Scott is great as the haggard, brilliant mathematician whose heart has been been broken, and Winslet is wonderful as the witty and underappreciated Hester. But the real standout is Jeremy Northam who steals every scene he is in, as the very dapper, and very suspicious Wigram.

The dialogue in the film crackles thanks to a great screenplay by Tom Stoppard which was based on the bestselling novel by Robert Harris. Do yourself a favor and check out this example of smart adult cinema.

Rating:
Summary: British WWII Spy Thriller with intelligence
Review: Lovers of classic WWII British cat and mouse thrillers will like this movie.

I enjoyed the twisting, intelligent story of Enigma. I'll try to sum it up in two sentences. It's about a British codebreaker in WWII who suffers a breakdown after his lover jilts him, then returns to service to learn that the Nazis have changed the code of their Enigma machines. He must re-break the code, evade a government agent who suspects him of spying, and rely on his ex-lover's roommate to help him solve a parallel mystery about missing communications from the Germans in Poland.

Dougray Scott is haggard and believable as the brilliant mathematician on the verge of another breakdown. Kate Winslet de-glams to play the slightly frumpy but intelligent roomie of the elusive Claire. Jeremy Northam plays the dapper, light in manner but deeper than he appears, agent on the trail of the spies.

The story has great dialogue and respects its characters, giving them depth. I liked that the hero and heroine were not all prettied up. When Dougray Scott is chasing the traitor, he looks like an academic running through the streets. The scenery is stunning throughout, with English countryside, large manor houses and tudor cottages. One point that some reviewers has missed is that the story is layered. There's the thriller aspect with the codebreakers trying to crack the code and save the convoy steaming across the Atlantic from the German U-boats, but there's also the personal tale of a man struggling to unravel a personal mystery.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting fictionalization of the Bletchley Park story
Review: This is a story loosely, very loosely, based on British intelligence's efforts to crack the Nazi encryption codes used during World War II. The screenplay was adapted from the novel by Robert Harris by playwright Tom Stoppard whose cinematic credits include Brazil (1985) and Shakespeare in Love (1998). Dougray Scott stars as Tom Jericho who is decidedly not Alan Turing, the troubled genius who spearheaded the amazingly successful effort that allowed the Allies to know in advance what the Nazis were up to. The true story is one of the most fascinating to come out of WWII.

This fictionalization is also a very good story. Michael Apted's direction gives us a nice feel for the era and for the type of people involved, intellectual and somewhat nerdish, creative people who were as valuable to the war effort, or even more so, than the soldiers in the field. Dougray Scott does a nice job of depicting a mathematician who has gone a little crazy because of an abortive love affair with a beautiful intelligence clerk, Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows). He is sent away after cracking the Nazi code, but when the Nazis institute a new code he is returned from the nut house and pressed back into service. Still haunted by the memory of Claire, it is not clear that he is of any use. When he discovers that Claire is missing, the subplot begins with Jericho and Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet), once Claire's roommate, sleuthing through top secret intelligence files looking for clues to determine what happened to Claire and whether she was a spy or not. What they discover along the way of course is each other. Watching them is Wigram, a rakish secret service agent with a heart of pure darkness, played with mystery and an arrogant ruthlessness by Jeremy Northam.

Billed as a thinking man's thriller, it is that. However, the plot suffers from two main problems: Claire can only be seen in flashback (I would like to have seen more of the woman who said, "Poor you. I really got under your skin, didn't I?"), and the action of the film must take place within a few days time, which means that Jericho must simultaneously crack the new code, find out what happened to Claire, and romance Hester. I don't think Apted's direction successfully solved these problems. His concentration on a realistic "feel" to the movie merely masked them.

Nonetheless, one can appreciate the action and remain fully immersed even while not following all of the plot's intricacies. The juxtaposition of the tall, blonde player of men in the person of the beautiful Saffron Burrows with the short, full-figured, Nancy Drew-like Hester in the person of the beautiful and gifted Kate Winslet was a stroke of casting genius. They are fascinating to watch. The contrast between the sensitive and vulnerable Jericho and the worldly and immoral Wigram provided an interesting balance. All four of the leads were excellent.

But see this for Tom Stoppard, who might be called "a thinking man's" screenwriter. His gift for writing witty and authentic dialogue based on research and a finely trained ear is part of what makes this an interesting film well worth seeing.

Rating:
Summary: A modern classic.
Review: Man, Dougray Scott looks sexy and intense in this movie! I loved him and the beautiful, swan necked, glamorous blonde Saffron Burrows. She's like a walking dream in all that war and gloom. The movie is fair to her character, and that's something you don't see every day. Those in the picture who look down on her are viewed with comtempt, as they should be.

I like the spy game and I think all the twists and turns are all very unexpected and keep you on your toes.

I do think, though, that they didn't have to turn Kate Winslet into the opposite of beauty just to prove that she can or to make the blonde venus more striking. Dressing her up like that distracts the viewer from the movie, by begging us to focus on how well she's pretending to be ugly - which may have been the very vain motive indeed behind that decision. You know, Kate not wanting to be seen as just a sexy actress and all that. No one denies her talent. One can be unglamorous without being horrid and in this case it just attracts the wrong kind of attention.
Absolutely worth watching.

Rating:
Summary: Good intentions gone awry
Review: During WWII, a motley crew of men were recruited in Great Britain to intercept and translate the Nazi Enigma code. Scott plays Tom Jericho, one of the decoders who falls hard for an over-lipsticked Burrows and breaks down when she rejects him. Having returned to his decoding job after a mental-health hiatus, Jericho has only four days to translate a new Enigma code, thus saving a fleet of Allied convoy ships and presumably winning the war. Winslet dons a pair of Harry Potter specs to play plain-Jane Hester Wallace, who helps Jericho decode the new Enigma.

That the Enigma decoders came from all walks of life is reiterated throughout the movie. In fact, Enigma devotes much of its time to telling instead of showing; Scott had to memorize what must have been pages of script in order to narrate the development of Enigma and its decoding process. Northam, squinting his way through his role as a classist, sexist Intelligence dandy, also snidely lectures on the democratic demographics of the decoding staff. Similarly, Winslet frequently reminds us how women got the short shrift for their work in the war effort-a message with good intentions, but delivered rather obviously. This word-heavy tendency is accompanied by conventional plot devices and a series of twists and turns that require still further explanation from the characters.

Interestingly, the one subtle message in Enigma deserves more attention; specifically, the Faustian repercussions of the Allies' collaboration with Joseph Stalin. That the British kept these repercussions hushed up for fear of the Americans' reaction speaks volumes about who, ultimately, was calling the shots during the war.

Rating:
Summary: Ignore Enigma...
Review: This is one of those films that seems to have so much going for it. Great actors, an intriguing story on the video jacket, and that hint of mystery that threatens to suck us in. Be warned. Enigma fails to deliver at any level. With the exception of Jeremy Northam, the acting is mediocre at best. Jeremy at least manages to appear somewhat interested in the story. Kate Winslet's performance is weak, her character weird and immensely unsympathetic. Rent this first. See if you can make it through the entire tired plot, stereotypical "bad guys," and random acts of sex, before you commit to making it your own.

Rating:
Summary: Time Is On My Side
Review: Mick Jagger owns an enigma machine and has had great interest in it for years. This explains why he produced this particular project. Michael Apted does a great job of directing, albeit different from "Coal Miner's Daughter," "Gorillas in the Mist," or the underrated "Enough" with Jennifer Lopez. Tom Jericho is played by Dougray Scott who was the agent gone bad in "Mission Impossible 2" and Drew Barrymore's heartthrob in "Ever After." Here, he carries a torch with a very long fuse for Claire Romilly, spending much of the movie in the sadness of heartbreak. His eventual connection to Hester Wallace doesn't explode with the same chemistry, but seems like a comfortable choice for the character. Saffron Burrows who was in "Circle of Friends," "Frida" and "In the Name of the Father" does a great job as a seductive temptress. Jeremy Northam who was in "The Net," "Gosford Park" and "Happy Texas" does a suave job as the detective whose motives we never quite trust. Kate Winslett is made plain, quite unlike her "Titanic" persona," but communicates the earnestness of an over-achiever. Apted keeps the pace interesting despite the intensity of the brainwork going on to decipher the enigma code. This is a good period piece, a strong journeyman film with flashes of brilliance. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: SUSPENSEFUL TREATMENT CARRIES IT ABOVE ARTISTIC LICENSES..
Review: The theme is intriguing enough to make you want to watch the movie pronto -- the (supposedly British) breaking of the Nazi secret code in WWII at Bletchley Park, the busy estate of British decrypters.

Ok, so it is known that the people responsible for cracking Enigma's code were actually a group of Polish mathematicians, who made a replica in 1933 and presented France/England with cracked Enigma specimens in 1939, which helped the allies to know the orders and plans of Third Reich. So what. To the many crypto-aficianodos-turned-reviewers who seem to decry the artistic license in the movie -- well this is not Discovery channel is it. If you're looking for a history lesson read a book (e.g., "Between Silk And Cyanide") or google for Bletchely. If you want an entertaining visual narrative about it, watch this movie.

It is not easy to create an entertaining film about a subject that is for the most part mind-boggling -- cryptography. "Enigma" does a gripping and (mostly) credible job of capturing the nib of wartime espionage over 60 years ago. The drama, resplendent with it's cast of British idiosynchrasies (within which Dougray Scott provides a surprisingly underplayed and likeable genius), is both thrilling and of historical interest. The dialogue is snappy and interesting. But true to any 21st century spy movie, romance is thrown in for good measure as well and this is where Winslett makes herself useful.

The ultimate denouement with a couple of weedy subplots may be a little uninvolving but that doesn't detract Enigma from being an intriguing thriller overall. Highly recommended if you aren't expecting a super fast "Lola Rentt" pace.

Rating:
Summary: Good WWII mystery
Review: The movie based on the Robert Harris book is quite intteresting and not at all predictable. Dougray Scott takes his three first names and breaks code for the British during World War II. His quest is to reveal whether his former lover used him to give information to the Nazis. Real life events play as a backdrop to characters trying to figure out who the good guys are. Kate Winslett plays the frumpy one this time, but she still looks cute if you watch closely. I liked it a great deal. The fine English actors rose it above the level that is usually expected in these films. The DVD, though, offered no goodies of any kind. A shame, because producer Mick Jagger is a total buff on World War II decoder machines. A documentary about how the real war was decoded would have been perfect.

Rating:
Summary: Another side of the war¿
Review: During World War II, England's code breaking operations were headquartered at Bletchley Park. Here a crack team of experts worked to intercept and decode enemy messages. Enigma, is a rather cloudy tale of intrigue, involving members of this elite group. The story centers on Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott), a member of the code breaking team who has recently suffered a breakdown, and is now returning to his job at Bletchley. Prior to his breakdown, Jericho had a brief love affair with a coworker, Claire Romily (Saffron Burrows), who is now mysteriously missing. Jericho seeks the aid of Claire's friend, and roommate, Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet), and the two begin looking into what might have happened to Claire. Conducting the official investigation into her disappearance, and on the lookout for anyone suspicious, is security man Wigram (Jeremy Northam).

Large Allied convoys are headed East across the Atlantic, through waters patrolled by German U-boats. The enemy has recently changed their code, and at the moment, the English have no way to decipher enemy communications. The one hope they have, is to somehow come up with a "crib", a key, which will enable them, at least short term, to decipher the German's messages.

The story basically centers on the activities of Hester and Tom, as they try to discover what Claire may have been involved with just before her disappearance. The mysterious Claire is seen only in flashbacks. Eventually a breakthrough is made, using the "enigma" machine, a captured Nazi device, used to code and decode messages. Jericho is able to come up with the much needed "crib". Events and emotion, serve to turn the mild mannered fellow into a hero type. The ending featuring Jericho as the mouse that roared, turning the tables on Wigram, may be a little too convenient, and the story finishes with a tease that wraps up the loose ends.

Dougray Scott's performance as Jericho is a rather brooding one, and makes it hard to root for him. A rather frumpy looking, and bespectacled Kate Winslet, provides what little warmth and brightness there is. Presented primarily in flashback mode, Saffron Burrows as the "enigmatic" Claire, has only limited opportunities for character development. Jeremy Northam as the smug, self-satisfied Wigram, is a prissy fellow who doesn't quite have all the right answers.

In summary, we have an interesting British period piece, that attempts to blend suspense and romance, and does neither particularly well. The resulting composition while somewhat entertaining, is not completely satisfying. And if it matters, the film is apparently not historically accurate regarding some real people that the fictional characters are drawn from. John Barry's soundtrack contributes to the sleepy atmosphere, the music at times sounding like it has been recycled from one of his slower Bond efforts like Moonraker. This film may be best suited to those interested in low key wartime dramas, or fans of Kate Winslet.