Published via Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

“You would be all speaking German if not for us Americans”, was a saying quite common among those Americans who took Hollywood’s treatment of Second World War seriously. American contribution to the victory in Hollywood films was inflated at the expense at the expense of countries that paid much bigger butcher’s bill or spent more time fighting. The latter included United Kingdom, where the way Jonathan Mostow’s treatment of Battle of the Atlantic and capture of Enigma in U-571 created outrage. A year after that came the Enigma, 2001 British spy thriller directed by Michael Apted that, in its own way, tried to set the record straight.

The film is based on 1995 novel by Robert Harris. The plot is set in Spring 1943, when Allied convoys are crossing Atlantic Ocean in an attempt to deliver vital supplies of food, arms and ammunition to Britain and Soviet Union, while being targetted by German submarines. Germans have equipped with Enigma machines that encrypt and decode messages in a way that make them incomprehensible. Or, that is what Germans like to believe, unaware that the British government has formed top secret cryptographic centre in Bletchley Park and manned it it with top mathematicians and other experts. Partially due to obtaining one of the Enigma machines from captured submarine two years earlier and partly due to having true geniuses among among the staff, Bletchley Park has managed to crack the code and convoys can cross Atlantic with little bit more safety. But, few days earlier Germans have suddenly changed the code and that happens just before a strategic convoy is to sail. Because of that mathematician Tom Jericho (played by Dougray Scott) is summoned back to Bletchley Park despite being removed one month earlier because of nervous breakdown. Apart from German code, Jericho has another mystery to solve – disappearance of his attractive girlfriend Claire Burrows (played by Saffron Burrows). Jericho gets help from Claire’s room mate Hester Wallace (played by Kate Winslett) and gradually becomes convinced that Claire was German spy. Mr. Wigram (played by Jeremy Northam), MI5 official in charge of protecting the project, shares the same opinion and has Jericho put under surveillance.

Despite being another work of fiction, Enigma is much closer to historical truth about deciphering famous German code than U-571. Produced by Mick Jaegger (who briefly appears in cameo role of RAF officer), it had less budget than American war spectacle, but this allowed that event to be depicted as mostly intellectual effort conducted in top secret facilities rather than action adventure at high seas. The cast is mostly decent, including Dougray Scott, a British actor specialised in playing villains who here uses opportunity to play protagonist relatively well. Kate Winslett, who was pregnant during the production, is decent but unremarkable. Jeremy Northam, on the othe hand, is having a ball playing the antagonistic and cynical counter-intelligence operative. Veteran director Michael Apted handles the material very well, but Tom Stoppard’s script near the end succumbs to spy thriller cliches. Music score by prolific and otherwise dependable John Barry is too monotonous and disappointing and Enigma actually became the last title in Barry’s filmography. Despite those flaws, those who watch this film are going to be not only entertained but educated about fascinating but relatively obscure episode of Second World War.

RATING: 5/10 (++)