"Winslet acquits herself with considerable chameleon skill. Hester is an intelligent woman who knows herself to be under-used, but she has the ability to confront extraordinary situations."

Richard Mowe

Director: Michael Apted

Starring: Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows, Jeremy Northam, Corin Redgrave

LOVE, obsession and betrayal are the key components to solving the riddle of Michael Apted’s Enigma, a romantic wartime thriller which in its best moments carries echoes of such British films as The 39 Steps (the original version), Went The Day Well, and Reach For The Sky.

The script is literate and intelligent (Tom Stoppard adapted Robert Harris’s best-seller) while Dougray Scott as Tom Jericho - the brilliant mathematician who cracks the Nazi dispatches at Bletchley Park, the code-breaking centre - proves he can carry a lead role and, indeed, the rest of the film. Haunted, crumpled and solitary, he makes the perfect anti-hero who turns into a prime suspect.

Mick Jagger, whose company produced this, claims a passion for spy films. There are no secrets about why he was intrigued by Enigma. Clearly it has all those requisite ingredients - a touch of John Le Carré here, a dash of Graham Greene there. Scott’s character, besides wrestling with his work and recovering from a nervous breakdown, has another equally baffling puzzle of his own to unravel. Enter Saffron Burrows as Claire, oozing glamour in the style of a noir-ish femme fatale. She’s the woman with whom Jericho has fallen in love. Her disappearance from Bletchley just when the authorities suspect there may be a spy in the ranks provokes the game of cat and mouse.

At the same time the code-breakers are facing their worst nightmare: Nazi U-boats have unexpectedly changed the code by which they communicate with each other and German High Command. An Allied merchant shipping convoy, crossing the Atlantic with 10,000 passengers and vital supplies, is put in danger of attack. To unravel both mysteries, Jericho enlists the help of Hester (Kate Winslet), Claire’s best friend. Together they keep one step ahead of the secret services and investigate Claire’s mysterious life, uncovering all manner of unexpected revelations along the way.

Winslet acquits herself with considerable chameleon skill. Hester is an intelligent woman who knows herself to be under-used, but she has the ability to confront extraordinary situations. Winslet has suggested she found it "such a sexy time, with young people determined to live for the moment. In some ways I compare my character to George in Enid Blyton’s The Famous Five. She enjoys adventure and won’t stop till she gets a result and, in the end, she helps save the day." Most of the women who worked at Bletchley developed a passion for the work in which they were involved.

Many met their partners and married there. It was all rather cultured, with picnics on the lawn and classical music concerts. Incredibly, few realised the importance of the work until long after the end of the war.

Apted, no slouch when it comes to thrillers (his credentials include the Bond actioner The World is Not Enough) brings some of his early documentary experience to bear in the way the narrative unfolds. He is adept at creating the atmosphere of a communal work-place full of eccentrics, extroverts and some darkly disturbed characters.

The film also provides a glimpse of what must mark the beginning of the computer age, with clunky machines deciphering texts in dark and shadowy rooms.

As Jericho’s nemesis, Jeremy Northam chills the marrow as the sinister member of the Secret Service who delves into details both personal and professional with a lascivious interest that goes beyond the call of duty. His presence on the sidelines, ever ready to pounce, pervades the film. The confrontation of hunter and hunted on a train conjures up the seductive frisson of The Lady Vanishes.

Enigma’s values may be old-fashioned, but its strength lies in capturing the mood of the times as well as giving its audience some cerebral stimuli. In a cinematic climate where too many mindless explosions rule and plots could be written on the back of a matchbox, it makes a refreshing change.

Odeon, Edinburgh, tomorrow; UGC, Edinburgh, 19 August

Source: The Scotsman