Enigma (2001)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Michael Apted

Writers (WGA):

Robert Harris (novel)
Tom Stoppard (screenplay)

Release Date:

28 September 2001 (UK)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller | War

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:

Flashback | Secret Code | Code Breaking | Encryption | WWII

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:

Canada:14 (New Brunswick/Nova Scotia/Prince Edward Island) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario/Saskatchewan) | Singapore:PG | Iceland:L | Malaysia:U | Finland:K-11 | Germany:12 (f) | Australia:M | 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:

The Bletchley Park mansion in this film is not *the* actual Bletchley Park mansion, but another property. According to the tour guides at the real thing, the real Bletchley Park did not look enough like Bletchley Park to the production company to have been used in the film.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Early in the movie someone uses the word "presently" to mean "at present" or "now". In the 1940s (and earlier) in England "presently" meant "soon, in a short time".

Quotes:

Wigram: Were you surprised when you heard that Admiral Donitz had changed the weather code?
Tom Jericho: Well, the Germans were always nervous about Enigma. That was the reason Shark came on in the first place...
Wigram: But the Germans believe Enigma's supposed to be infallible, because it would take people a thousand years to figure out the settings for one day, and they are changed every day. But we don't use people for that, do we, Mr. Jericho?
Tom Jericho: No.
Wigram: No. And that is the secret inside the secret: your thinking machines. Day and night, clackety-clack, programmed with a menu provided by your amazing brain, narrowing down the infinite possibilities to just a few million. And if anyone tells the Germans about that... there goes the war.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Detective Fiction (2003)

Soundtrack:

You'll Never Know

short

And this Movie is definitely worth seeing. It's so nice to go to these cinema factories and be treated with a good film, rather than the tripe which always comes out of Hollywood.

Enigma is a quirky, happy go lucky film about codebreakers during the war, with a bit of espionage and a bit of romance, in just the right proportions. Go and see it, it is not too taxing on the brain really as someone else here said, it is certainly not mind numbingly boring Hollywood fodder.