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Enigma [2001]
from Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainm
starring Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows, Jeremy Northam, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
directed by Michael Apted

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

Codebreaking is an inherently fascinating but not especially cinematic endeavour, which is why Enigma spices up the true story of Bletchley Park and its eclectic group of Nazi code-cracking geniuses with some fictional romance and intrigue. Dougray Scott plays gaunt mathematician Tom Jericho, haunted by the spectre of his missing girlfriend Claire (self-consciously gorgeous Saffron Burrows). Tom turns to Claire's frumpy housemate Hester Wallace (dressed-down Kate Winslet) to help him find her, but their search unexpectedly reveals the presence of a spy at Bletchley Park. Matters are further complicated by an investigating secret service agent (imperturbable Jeremy Northam) and the hostility of Jericho's superiors.

Based on the novel by Robert Harris and adapted for the screen by Tom Stoppard, Enigma is unsurprisingly a literate and accomplished piece, unfussily directed by Michael Apted who keeps the various current and flashback story threads moving neatly in parallel, helped along by a languid score from veteran John Barry and a vividly realised wartime setting ("Have you heard the latest? Utility knickers--one yank and they're off!"). The contrived plot, however, distracts from the real drama, which is to be found in the desperate struggle to decipher the Enigma machine codes and the sometimes terrible ethical dilemmas involved. A little like that other Kate Winslet film, Titanic, this is another example of the factual background being far more compelling than the fiction grafted on top.

On the DVD: Engima arrives on disc in an extras-free package, with only scene selection and subtitles. More than one excellent documentary has been made about Alan Turing and his team of Bletchley Park codebreakers, so it's doubly disappointing to have nothing here on the real-life events depicted in the movie. Picture is widescreen 1.78:1 and sound Dolby 5.1 surround.--Mark Walker

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

• An enjoyable story set around Bletchley Park in WW2
  If I had wanted a documentary about Bletchley Park during WW2, I would have bought one of several good titles available, or a DVD if there was one.
  Want I wanted, and got, was a really good fictional account set around the code breaking activities of that centre. The story is loosely based on real characters and events, but it is a STORY, and a very enjoyably told and terrifically acted one. I like all the actors, they work well together. The story is plausible, but I'm not interested in 'is this or... more info

• Parody
  If this is the version I've seen, it must be the most coy rendering of actual events I've seen. It's well known that the most significant figure in the Bletchley/Enigma project was Alan Turing. Yet I don't remember that he was ever mentioned in this film. Instead, a sweet romance was shoehorned in. Turing, we should understand, was homosexual - and was made to suffer for it, to the point of suicide. He was never honoured in his lifetime, or even until very recently, largely for that reason. This version is... more info

• Good film, rubbish release.
  This is a very good film, and I feel that the review "An Enigmatic film experience" posted in 2002 gives a suitable resume of the movie itself.
  This review is primarily a warning to mention that the writer of that review is referring to the original DVD release of the film, which had lots of special features and was in the correct cinema aspect ratio (2.35:1) and which on Amazon, at least, is currently unavailable.
  The item on sale at the moment is a re-released version, which is inexplicably much... more info

• Possibly the dullest film I've ever seen!
  Ever watched a film and kept thinking "it'll get better in a minute"?
  This film has had some really good reviews on Amazon, but I'm clearly missing something, because I can't see why. Maybe it's just not my cuppa tea, but I could only bear 40 minutes of Enigma before I turned it off due to utter boredom. I found it as dull as ditchwater.
  

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