Enigma (2001)

Director:

Michael Apted

Writers (WGA):

Robert Harris (novel)
Tom Stoppard (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 September 2001 (UK)

Genre:

Romance | Thriller | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

10,000,000,000,000,000+ combinations - 24 hours to get it right

Plot:

A young genius frantically races against time to crack an enemy code and solve the mystery surrounding the woman he loves.

Plot Keywords:

Code Breaking | Encryption | Secret Codes | WWII | 1940s

Awards:

3 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Dougray Scott	...	Thomas Jericho
Kate Winslet	...	Hester Wallace
Saffron Burrows	...	Claire
Jeremy Northam	...	Wigram
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau	...	Puck (as Nikolaj Coster Waldau)
Tom Hollander	...	Logie
Donald Sumpter	...	Leveret
Matthew Macfadyen	...	Cave
Richard Leaf	...	Baxter
Ian Felce	...	Proudfoot
Bohdan Poraj	...	Pinker
Paul Rattray	...	Kingcome
Richard Katz	...	De Brooke
Tom Fisher	...	Upjohn
Robert Pugh	...	Skynner

Also Known As:

Enigma - Das Geheimnis (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated R for a sex scene and language.

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

UK | USA | Germany | Netherlands

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Malaysia:U | Singapore:PG | Canada:14 (New Brunswick/Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island) | Finland:K-11 | Iceland:L | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario/Saskatchewan) | Australia:M | Germany:12 | Netherlands:12 | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:7 | Sweden:7 | UK:15 | USA:R (certificate #37517)

Filming Locations:

Adelphi Building, John Adam Street, Strand, London, England, UK

Company:

Broadway Video

Trivia:

Thomas Jericho is loosely based on real-life mathematician and code-breaker Alan Turing (1912-1954).

Goofs:

Anachronisms: In the opening scene we see concrete sleepers on the railway line which were not introduced until early 1980s.

Quotes:

Hester Wallace: I seem to move in an endless circle, Mr. Jericho, from one patronizing male to another, always telling me what I am and am not allowed to know. Well, that ends here.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Detective Fiction (2003)

Soundtrack:

Chorale Prelude No. 18, B W V 668, Wenn wir in höchsten Nöten Sein

A decent spy yarn but falls far short of the true story

A couple of years ago PBS aired a 2-hour episode of Nova (the American equivalent of the BBC's Horizon) called 'Decoding Nazi Secrets.' It was a fascinating documentary about the work done at Bletchley Park, as well as some material about its American counterpart, Arlington Hall. I had wished it was even longer, for I suspected that what was left out was as interesting as what was included. Among the many memorable characters in the story, none stood out more than Alan Turing, a painfully shy, socially awkward, utterly brilliant genius. I found myself wishing that someone would make a theatrical film about the Enigma code and a film of Alan Turing's life, or both.

Unfortunately, this isn't it. In March of 1943, code-breakers at Bletchley Park discover to their horror that the German navy has changed the code sets used to communicate with U-boats at sea. These were based on the famous and diabolically complex encryption machine known as the Enigma. Authorities enlist the help of a brilliant young man named Tom Jericho (played by Dougray Scott) to help them break the code again. The possibility of a spy within the British code-breakers' ranks is raised, and Tom's love interest, Claire (Saffron Burrows), has disappeared. To solve these mysteries, Tom recruits Claire's best friend, Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet). While investigating Claire's personal life, the pair discovers personal and international betrayals involving the now-infamous Katyn massacre in Poland. Of course, Tom and Hester fall in love.

Dougray Scott actually does bear some physical resemblance to Alan Turing, but there the comparison ends. Turing's sorry, shabby reward for the instrumental role he played in winning the war for Britain was to be persecuted during the Cold War because his homosexuality was viewed as a security risk, to the point that he committed suicide. While 'Enigma' looks good and plays fairly well as a decent espionage film, the viewer who knows the factual background of this piece of fiction will probably be disappointed. The best part for me was the recreation of the physical setting at wartime Bletchley Park, especially the Enigma machines themselves and the famous Bombes, which were invented by Turing (Jericho in the film). These were among the world's first computing machines; they were a stroke of brilliance by Turing: Instead of looking for what a coded message WAS, they operated according to the principle of eliminating what it was NOT. This cut the number of possibilities by better than 90% and greatly simplified the work of the human code-breakers. It is somewhat surprising that this rather wan film is the work of Tom Stoppard and Michael Apted; they have done better.