Enigma

"Enigma" blends fact with fiction as it tells a carefully crafted story about the unseen and unsung heros of British WWII code-cracking who decrypted the infamous "Enigma" code which Germany used to command it's U-boat armada in the North Atlantic putting allied convoys in peril. With plenty of history and super-secret code cracking to feed the left brain and a dramatic tale of a top code-cracker and his surreptitious affairs of heart and mind for the right brain, "Enigma" has something to offer everyone. The film manages it's intricate plot well, offers solid performances, blends intrigues with lots of WWII crypto-speak, and moves along swiftly while staying real and avoiding the usual excesses of filmdom. A smart flick for smart minds. (B+)

'Enigma' is the kind of war movie that may not be loved by many people, mostly because there isn't much of action to be seen in it. At least, not the kind of action they would like to see: no heroically fighting soldiers, no breathtaking dogfights between the RAF and the Luftwaffe... But people like me, who are deeply interested in every aspect of the Second World War and who can appreciate a good story, certainly will love it.

It's March 1943 and the crypto-analysts at Britain's code-breaking center have discovered that the German U-boats have changed their Enigma Code. At first the English were able to read all their messages, but now they are back where they first started ... nowhere. Their only hope is the brilliant young man named Tom Jericho, who was able to crack the first code and who'll now have to do the same with the new one. In the meantime Tom's girlfriend Claire has disappeared and at the same time it is believed that there is a spy in the ranks of the code-breakers. When looking for his lost girlfriend and investigating her personal life, he uncovers some personal and international betrayals...

However it is clear that the main story of this movie is fictional, the entire movie is certainly interesting to watch. I mean, I have never had the chance to see how this enigma machines really worked, so I really appreciated the fact that it was shown so well in this movie. What I also liked in this movie was the love story that certainly wasn't too corny or overwhelming. It was an interesting part of the story that never bothered me, it just made the movie even better.

As I already said, this may not be the kind of war movie for the masses, but I liked it and that's why I give it at least a 7.5/10, perhaps even an 8/10.

Firstly: no, it's NOT a scandal that Alan Turing isn't mentioned. He couldn't be mentioned without being made into a character and given a role in the story - which would mean, among other things, placing him on the list of suspected traitors, at least temporarily, which would either be a slur, or (assuming it wasn't a slur because we'd immediately know him to be innocent) a constraint on the mystery. Throwing in a clearly fictitious genius was the right thing to do. (Turing was the most important, but not the only, genius involved.)

The main problem with "Enigma" is that emphasis is badly misplaced. I was interested in (a) how the war effort was going, (b) whether Bletchley Park would come up with solutions in time, (c) HOW the process of breaking codes was actually carried out, and (d) when Tom would get over his idiotic infatuation with that annoying blonde chick and fall, as any sensible person would, for the dynamic and twenty-times-more-attractive Hester (Kate Winslet). I won't swear that I was interested in these things in that order, but I WAS interested in them to the exclusion of everything else; the mystery subplot involving Claire that for some reason becomes THE plot, was a distraction. Its twists and turns (they come along like clockwork every fifteen minutes) are of the kind you don't even bother trying to follow. You just wait for the next confrontation between Dougray Scott and Jeremy Northam, of which Stoppard's (or Harris's) mechanical sleight-of-hand is just a means of providing. A pity he couldn't have found some other means - or moved Northam's character to a different movie altogether, where he wouldn't take time away from Enigma, Winslet's character, etc.

The film - and the script, too, all things considered - is well put together (intelligent writing, excellent acting and photography), so the Claire subplot makes it a real missed opportunity.

Hello Every children in Poland knows that Enigma codes has cracked by Polish scientists from Poznan University ( M. Rejewski, J. Rozycki, H. Zygalski). This is in ours History Books in elementary school. Well... that film has falsified history... Grets

You realise how little known Alan Turing was only twenty years ago when you eventually discover he's been transformed into dashing Tom Jericho romantically involved with Saffron Burrows (as Daphne to Kate Winslet's Velma) and not to take this too seriously as history.

As a slick drama with a John Barry score it's enjoyable enough though, although it does rather ramble until the final plot development that serves to remind us that it's based on a novel by the same author as 'Fatherland'.