Enigma DVD > Reviews > crack the code

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	good story, solid performances
Disadvantages:	little slow, tad boring

Recommend to potential buyers:

no

Full review

“Enigma” is based on the best-selling novel by Robert Harris, translated into a screenplay here by Tom “I won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love” Stoppard.

Altho a work of fiction the story takes place in and around the very real Bletchley Park which was the home of the British code-breakers during WWII, and who, with the assistance of a captured Enigma encoding machine, played a great part in shorting the war and thus saving many lives.

Anyways the story centres around our anti-hero Tom Jericho. M:I-2’s Dougray Scott, a brilliant mathematician responsible for breaking a fiendish German code, returning to work after suffering a mental breakdown. His collapse is officially contributed to the strain of breaking the code, however it was actually caused by the break-up of an obsessive love affair with a beautiful co-worker, Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows).

Tom’s boss isn’t exactly too pleased to have him back, however the team of code-breakers are very chuffed that he has returned as the Germans have changed their code just as the largest North Atlantic convoy sets sail for Europe from the US. The naval chiefs need the boffins to break the code so that they can monitor the U-Boat communications otherwise the convoy will be sitting ducks.

At the same time a suspected spy at Bletchley Park is being investigated by intelligence officer Wigram (Jeremy Northam). Claire has disappeared and when Tom makes a disturbing discovery at her house, it appears that she may be involved, and may indeed be the spy.

In an attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery, Tom recruits the assistance of Claire’s housemate, plain Jane filing clerk Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet).

Their actions attract the attentions of Wigram as they follow the trail of clues, drawing them towards a disturbing discovery. Meanwhile the convoy continues to sail into danger and some terrible decisions have to be made…

This is a very old-fashioned type of movie. Altho concessions have been made to modern audiences in terms of language, sex and violence, it is not inconceivable to imagine this movie having been made in the 40’s or 50’s.

There is no cynicism; it doesn’t try to be clever, flashy or showy. It just gets down to the job of spinning a yarn.

So in that respect it is quite refreshing. However, as you’ll know if you watch C4 on weekday afternoons, these older movies tend to be fairly leisurely paced which can tend to make them a little bit boring at times, and this is the case here. I not saying that I was bored out of my skull, it was just a little slow.

For the most part the movie focuses on the people of Bletchley Park, however a couple of scenes are set out in the North Atlantic and I felt they were wasted as a chance to inject a little bit of action into the movie. The very wordy and very good movie “Thirteen Days” was enhanced by a couple of very well chosen and appropriate actions scenes.

I still enjoyed the movie tho. The script has couple of good jokes and the story is a good one, and manages to run three different threads simultaneously, without getting bogged down. As well as focusing on the individual human elements of war, it also dared to show that during such times horrible decisions have to be made for the greater good. Its let itself down at bit at the end tho, as this was a little bit silly and rushed.

The performances are of a very high standard. Dougray Scott is very convincing as the haunted Tom, especially when you see him in happier times during flash-backs, you really believe that this is a man haunted and driven by inner demons.

Kate puts in a solid performance as Hester. She is one of those frumpy dumpy good egg sorts that you could imagine was very good at hockey when she was at school.

Jeremy Northam as the spy catcher bordered on cliché as the smooth public school type but his performance served the old fashioned feel of the movie very well.

The key performance in the movie has to be that of Saffron Burrows. In chasing down the mystery of her disappearance, Tom and Hester have to commit some treasonable acts, which could see them hanged. You have to believe that they care and/or obsess about her enough to risk their lives. And altho Saffron is not the greatest actress in the world, I was convinced. She is stunningly good looking, impossibly long limbs and cheekbones like geometry, eyes like sin (apologies to Lloyd Cole). I’d be quite happy to make a fool of myself over her.

However as much as I enjoyed it, and I did rather, it is not an essentially cinematic movie. It had more of a feel of a Sunday night BBC drama, shown in 3 parts. Not one to rush out and see at the movies, unless you have nothing else to do, but worth catching on video eventually.

Movie has a “15” certificate. Some strong language, very brief nude sex scene, desiccated dead bodies.

The movie was produced by Mick Jagger and he appears very briefly in it. If you go see, look out for him.