Rating: 
Summary: Terrific historical thriller!!
Review: I live in Germany and so was able to see this at a theatre in Frankfurt which shows movies in their original English versions (which is perfect since I don't speak a lick of German and would also like to hear the original voices of these high-paid stars). The show was great! I didn't have many expectations but the acting was superb; Northam, Scott, and Winslet just made the movie. The settings were so very well done that I felt transported to that time and place. Its romantic and tragic with history and high drama. It never drags. One of the best movies I've seen in the past year.
Rating: 
Summary: Surprised
Review: I am suprised this movie is not being released until 2002, Saffron Burrows plays an amazing supporting role & Kate Winslet is unrecognisable (looks like Ab Fab's Saffron)Watch this movie, it's a good old fashioned movie & shows a key point in WW2.
Rating:
Summary: an accurately made movie for the setting
Review: ENIGMA is a very good movie in my opinion, whereas I don't know much about WWII, especially specifics, I found this movie to be a good source of information in the codebreaking area of that time. Some people have said that it looks like it was made in the 1940's, and that it's not good because of that, but I think that it is appropriate for them to have done that. If it would have looked like a state of the art movie, it wouldn't have brought the purpose, idea, and strength of the movie as it did. I enjoyed the movie very much and I would watch it again, the acting was good, as was the plot, and the settings of the whole movie were done very nicely.
Rating:
Summary: Good flick, slightly inaccurate historically
Review: I hate to be picky..but the Enigma system was a stream cypher, NOT a code. A code encyphers the same item "battleship" say, in a finite number of ways. Eventually they repeat. The Enigma system would NOT repeat (in less than many years). That was it's strength. The movie publicises a little known, and scarcely appreciated part of WW2. Perhaps a major reason why we are not speaking German now. In my opinion: well written, convincingly acted, somewhat unkind to the Poles (who provided invaluable help to the Allies with their cryptographic skills - and were shabbily treated as a reward), but well worth a look. More historically accurate material is available from the Bletchley Park site for those interested in persuing cryptanalysis more deeply. Cheers..
Rating:
Summary: Good, but beware of little tweaking of truth
Review: It is a provocative, intelligent, and well-done movie, however not strictly based on facts. In short, it's not a masterpiece, but I would still recommend this film to people interested in the history of the Second World War. However, it must be taken with a pinch of salt. The main plot of the movie is not correct. The movie unfolds around an inaccurate premise that the Germans used the Enigma machine to cipher messages related to massacre of Polish officers. It is obvious why the authors did it - it was a device to link Polish motif with the cracking of the Enigma code. It is the fact, the Poles were very helpful to the British intelligence in cracking the German Enigma code. They actually delivered the top secret German Enigma machine to the hands of the head of British intelligence, who personally met Polish courier at the London's Victoria station. It is true; the cracking the Enigma code was crucial for protecting the US-British Atlantic convoys against German U-boats. However, the movie does not do the Poles any service by portraying the Polish code-breaker as a traitor who was willing to sell the Germans top British secrets just to harm the Soviets (as a pay back for the massacre of the Polish officers). It is not clear why would he favor Germans over Russians. After all, it was the Germans who were currently clearing off the Polish lands for the German settlers following the Nazi policy of expanding 'Lebensraum' at the expense of (using their terminology) 'Slavic vermin'. On the other hand, why the Germans would be so stupid as to cipher the massages, which potentially would be so damaging for the alliance of their enemies? The reality is, the Germans openly radio broadcasted in April 1943 the facts about what they found in Katyn forest, hoping to damage Soviet-Polish and Soviet-British alliance. The fact is, they did just that, although more in the long run. In the sort run, only few people even in AK (Polish Army) leadership circle in London were willing to believe the information transmitted by the Germans. Even those few who did, the British were extremely annoyed with. But in the long run, this crime of Stalin and Beria's NKVD committed in Byelorussian (not Ukrainian, as in the movie) forest would cloud the Russian-Polish relations for many years to come. The movie is incorrect, but raises questions worth asking...
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent, Literate Movie for Adults
Review: I think this is one of the most literate and well-crafted movies to come out in the last 15 or 20 years. It tells the story of Tom Jericho, a math genius working at Bletchley Park during WWII. He and others are trying to break the variation of the Enigma code used by the German navy as their subs attack Allied convoys. Mixed into this is betrayal, conflicted feelings, the Katyn Massacre, romance, puzzles, and an instructive look at code breaking.
The screenplay is by Tom Stoppard, one of Britain's best playwrights, who has put together a literate, serious story, a believeable romance for grownups, and clever plot lines. Dougray Scott, as Jericho, and Kate Winslet, as Hester Wallace, are excellent. Scott for most of the time he's on screen looks exhausted and sad. The changes in his characterization as he slowly developes feelings for Winslet are subtle. Winslet sheds any glamor for the role. She wears round, black-rimmed glasses, is a little dumpy, but glows with intelligence. All the secondary parts are very well acted.
There's a lot going on in the movie, but the clues are all there. If you don't stay alert you'll lose enough of the thread to wonder what's going on, and you probably won't be able to catch up.
I think this is one of the rare instances where a movie is just as good as the book it's based on.
The DVD transfer is excellent.
Rating:
Summary: There is more than one mystery to solve in this WWII film
Review: If you remember the film "U-571," the Hollywood version of how the Allies got a hold of the Enigma decryption device (with Americans replacing the British), then "Enigma" continues the story in terms of how code breaking was a key part of the Allied War effort. The setting is Bletchley Park, which was the center for England's decoding operation. Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott), a mathematician who has something of a dangerous mind, has been brought back for a big project. Apparently he was the star of the show until he suffered a nervous breakdown until something happened between him and his girlfriend, Claire Romilly (Saffrom Burrows). No one is quite sure about him, but the Germans have changed their encryption methods just as the first of several large convoys are heading across the Atlantic. The British need to know where the German U-boats are or the war could be lost.
"Enigma" is basically two movies. One is about the effort to crack the new German code, trying to catch a break that can make all the difference, and having to face the prospect of sacrificing ships, cargo, and men to get that break. The other is more of a traditional thriller as Tom tries to find out what has happened to Claire, who has disappeared. He is aided and abetted by Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet), who is underemployed in the war effort as a clerk. But as he investigates Claire's disappearance he keeps encountering Wigram (Jeremy Northam), who appears to be some sort of security agent. The problem is you can never be sure if anybody is whom they appear to be in this film. You know there is a traitor running around here and even Tom, because of his mental problems, is a suspect.
Ultimately it is the second plotline that overwhelms the first, and if you are looking for insights into how these geniuses did their work you will get little along those lines. You are also going to be rather surprised at what the big clue ends up being and the abrupt turn in the plot that results from that twist. On the one hand you certainly never see it coming, but on the other how it fits into the complex story is less than satisfying. Fortunately there are the two decidedly different mysteries going to keep our attention as well as the performances by Scott and Winslet, who keep their respectively unstable and frumpy characters from becoming caricatures.
"Enigma" also seems to be two films in terms of the pacing. The first three-quarters of director Michael Apted's two-hour film is a bit slow and then we end up racing through the big develops at the end. It is not often where you feel that a film is dragging and then suddenly find it rushing by like this one does in the end. When you have a script by Tom Stoppard ("Shakespeare in Love"), based on the novel by Robert Harris ("Fatherland"), cinematography by Seamus McGarvey ("The Hours"), and a score by John Barry ("The Lion in Winter," "Out of Africa," "Dances With Wolves) and there are problems with the movie you have to look at who was making the decisions on things like editing. Consequently, this 2001 film will probably be of more interest to students of intelligence work in World War II more than to fans of the thriller genre.
Rating: 
Summary: Historically Inaccurate Farce
Review: Watch "Enigma" to kill some time, but don't hold on to the presentation as history. The real story of the Nazi code-breaking team and Alan Turing must be too controversial for a film. "Enigma" goes beyond taking creative license -- it rewrites history right down to the persona of the lead character. Consider it "loosely inspired" by the facts. A well done and well filmed piece of fiction nonetheless.
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: 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!
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