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Enigma a real brain teaser Michael D. Reid - Times Colonist (Victoria) July 19, 2002 Second World War spy thriller is a bracing tonic for the mind that's as challenging to crack as the naval code of the title
Friday, July 19, 2002 AT THE BOX OFFICE What: Enigma Stars: Dougray Scott, Jeremy Northam Where: Vic Rating: 4 Sharp, suspenseful and meticulously evocative, Enigma is the opposite of all those summer movies like Eight Legged Freaks and Mister Deeds that insist you check your brains at the box-office. Conversely, Enigma gives your grey matter a satisfying workout as you absorb a plot that can be as challenging to crack as the naval code of the title. As demanding as it can be, however, this romantic, old-fashioned spy thriller is a riveting film inspired by the experiences of British code-breakers at their stately headquarters at Bletchley Park north of London during the Second World War. Combining fact and fiction, Enigma is set in 1943 and centres on Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott), a Cambridge mathematician summoned back to the top-secret Victorian mansion. He was their star code-breaker until a failed romance with Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows), a beautiful cipher clerk, triggered the besotted genius's nervous breakdown. Although the film's title refers to the notorious coding devices used by the German navy to encrypt messages, it could also apply to the brainy, promiscuous heart-breaker who mysteriously disappears just as Jericho is called back to help out on a critical mission. Time is of the essence since, shortly after Claire's disappearance, the Nazis changed their transmission codes. If they aren't deciphered soon, it will seriously imperil a convoy of Allied ships carrying supplies and thousands of passengers into an area of the North Atlantic where the Nazis' U-boat fleet is strategically poised to launch a deadly strike. As directed by Michael Apted from a crackling screenplay by Tom Stoppard based on Robert Harris's 1995 best-seller, Enigma beautifully interweaves the haunted hero's flashbacks to his affair with beat-the-clock tension as Allied brass crank up the pressure on the eccentric unsung heroes who are feverishly trying to decipher the new code. The gaunt, bedraggled Jericho also finds himself teaming up with Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet), Claire's dowdy roommate, in an attempt to solve the mystery of her disappearance. Shadowed by Wigram (Jeremy Northam), a smoothly tenacious British Secret Service agent who believes Claire was a traitor who tipped off the Nazis, Jericho is also determined to protect his former lover from charges of treason if she resurfaces. It's not giving anything away to say that several plot developments in Enigma aren't necessarily what they appear to be, and that the filmmakers expertly keep us guessing, adding to the pleasures cherished by film fans with a fondness for such stylized intricacy. Even when Enigma stumbles - particularly noticeable during a denouement that ties up loose ends rather too tidily - the film is a pleasingly smart alternative to the dumbed-down fare proliferating at the multiplex these days. But you must pay close attention. That isn't a tall order considering this crafty thriller's assets, beginning with its first-rate cast. Scott, best remembered as Prince Henry in Ever After, is suitably tormented as the questioning burnout, but it's the reliably debonair Northam who steals the show as the ruthless spy-catcher in cool pursuit. Winslet is also engaging as Jericho's mousy bespectacled collaborator whose beauty slowly becomes as apparent as her braininess, and Burrows is persuasively enigmatic as the femme fatale who vanishes without a trace. The film's technical achievements are no less considerable, chiefly Seamus McGarvey's gorgeously inventive camera work and John Beard's remarkably evocative production design. They make Enigma as much a feast for the eyes as a bracing tonic for the mind. Source: The Province (Canada.com) |
