The Basics

There is no such thing as coincidence.  That is the premise behind the plot of the British movie, Enigma.  A young woman turns up missing in the highly classified Bletchly Park, a place that holds the ultimate defense of England and the future of the war for the allies.  It is the place where the German enigma code is cracked.  When the woman turns up missing, the Germans change their naval Enigma code, SHARK, and go on radio silence.  The largest convoy of war material heading towards the greatest concentration of u-boats in the war to date.  Is there a spy in Bletchly Park?  The prime suspect is Tom Jericho, a man who dated the missing Claire Rommily and is also the man who broke SHARK. 

The Good

Screen writer Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love and Brazil) and director Michael Apted did a good job of keeping the movie self referenced and cohesive.  Engma left no unanswered questions at the end and addressed every issue that it unearthed.  The movie also did a good job explaining why enigma was so important to Germany, why cracking it was paramount to the allies and the basic points of code breaking. 

            Visually Enigma was very well done.  What few special effects integrated into the movie were well done, particularly the u-boats hunting the convoy.  The look and feel of early war England were portrayed convincingly and captivatingly.  Michael Apted’s (Enough) directing was great save for the first minute of the film and last two minutes, which seemed like last minute additions.  Particularly the first minute had far too much colorized stock footage to immediately draw in the viewer.  Luckily me made up for it very quickly thereafter.

            The acting was top notch.  Dougray Scott did a good job showing the facets of Tom Jericho: manic, besotted, angry, depressed and brilliant.  Kate Winslet, who I could described as overrated, did a solid job as Hester and emoting the character’s changing feelings about Tom and Claire as the movie progressed.  Jeremy Northam was perhaps the most engaging actor in the movie as the greasy and zealous Intelligence officer Wigram.  The secondary roles were portrayed very well, but acting and production values seem to be hallmarks of English film so this is no surprise (unless you have only watched Blake’s 7 a Dr. Who which are good examples of bad British production values…:).

The Bad (or sort of bad…)

            There were very few bad points about Enigma, unless you count the very small theater I viewed it in, twice.  First time it was packed and the press of people in a small theater really detracted from the movie.  On a second viewing there were about a third as many viewers and that only left my back to the mercy’s of the dilapidated seats in the theater.  Ironically had I been able to read my watch and not been in a jet lagged stupor I would have seen it in a presumably nice big theater in Piccadilly Circus shortly after it premiered in the UK.  But that is another story.

            One point where the movie diverges from the book is the climatic end, which is far more theatrical and requires suspension of disbelief.  The book had a much better mechanic for the spy reporting back to Nazi Germany.  While not a great moment in the film in regards to the rest of the plot, it was still shot well and there were a few good bits of dialogue.  The last two minutes of the film were somewhat extraneous and simply mannered out what is very obvious to the audience in regards to the future of Claire, Tom and Hester.  The final u-boat scene drifted far away from the novel

            Enigma runs 117 minutes, which is not overlong in regards to attention span or bladder capacity, but it could have been edited down as there were some scenes that went a little long.  Probably the last 15 minutes of the movie could have followed the novel more closely and that would answer this issue, but also cutting down the flashbacks with Claire Rommily could have sufficed.  The actress who played Claire was vaguely attractive (tall, blonde, legs up to her neck), but Saffron Burrows did not deliver much to her role (other than looking good).  The points in the movie where the enigma machine and code breaking are discussed sometimes get a little more detailed than a casual moviegoer might desire or understand fully.  But these scenes truly do underlie the importance of Bletchly Park but I could not find a better way to portray these scenes.

RPG Spin

            Enigma does a solid job at focusing on a very narrow group of characters and more specifically two: Tom and Hester.  WWII is a tough setting for an RPG played strictly historical (re no zombies, arcane rituals, etc.).  But the film shows a good example of a plot line that might work in an RPG setting or provide a laundry list of what would make for an engaging game session or two.  Really just watch the movie for enjoyment and leave the rpg hat on the hook at home.  It is good to take a break!

Synopsis

Enigma is an excellent adaptation of the book by Robert Harris and is completely engaging in its own right.  It really has the right mix of plot, characters and suspense set in the backdrop of WWII, that will make it one of the best films I have seen this year.