ENIGMA
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2002 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): ***
"A rose is just plain text," cryptologist Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) tells Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows), his blonde beauty. Since that sounds like a geeky version of Shakespeare, you'll probably not be surprised to learn that SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE's Tom Stoppard penned ENIGMA's script. Working from Stoppard's literate screenplay, director Michael Apted (THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and the 7UP documentary series) crafts a wartime thriller and romance that rivals last year's Oscar winner, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, in its fascinating depiction of scientists toiling away on nearly intractable problems.
Set in early World War II after the British were already in possession of Germany's supposedly unbreakable Enigma coding machine, the story concerns a major kink put in the works by the Germans. Code-named Shark, the Germans had produced the "ultimate refinement of Enigma." Since it took England's best mathematicians ten months to crack the original Enigma and since the improvement produced billions times billions more combinations, it isn't at all clear how long the brainiacs will need to solve the Shark puzzle. With the Allies shipping a million tons of supplies a week to Britain and with U-boat packs prowling undetected, the code cracking has the war effort's highest urgency.
A parallel and related storyline to the big code-breaking attempt concerns Claire, who goes missing. Claire has spy written all over her, and Wigram (Jeremy Northam), a slightly slimy intelligence officer, figures that there is a spy in Bletchley Park where the cryptologists work. Wigram is suspicious of Claire and of every man with whom she has slept, which turns out to be just about everyman who knows the value of pi. Northam, turning in another brilliant performance rather akin to his one in THE WINSLOW BOY, steals every scene he's in. Also quite good is Kate Winslet, as Hester Wallace, Tom's able detective assistant in activities that could get them both shot. Tom and Hester decide to single-handedly solve the mystery of Claire's disappearance
"I like numbers because they take you close to the secret of who you are," Tom tells Claire when she is having trouble understanding what makes him tick. And I love movies that assume the audience is intelligent enough to explore scientific endeavors without dumbing it down to the lowest common denominator. ENIGMA has enough enigmas hidden within it to make its title especially apropos. They're all fascinating enigmas, well worth your time.
ENIGMA runs 1:57. It is rated R for "a sex scene and language" and would be acceptable for teenagers.
The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, May 24, 2002. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.
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