Enigma
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Movie Reviews of Enigma
Movie Review: Fix is in
Summary: 3 Stars
Columbia TriStar has released a new version of this DVD that addresses the incompatibility with Philips and Toshiba DVD players. Contact your DVD vendor for details.Movie Review: Hackneyed; mostly limps at a snail's pace.
Summary: 2 Stars
"The thinking man's thriller"? I failed to see this -- either I'm not a "thinking man", or the phrase is hogwash, for all I see in Enigma is a slow-moving, pretentious, loquacious film with very few thrilling moments and an interesting backdrop that's rendered limp by bad direction and pacing.
First let me get the good points over with. Dougray Scott, who was simply impotent as the lovesick schoolboy villain of M:I-2, fares much better here as master codebreaker Tom Jericho. This role requires much less charm and power , and Scott's strange face and nasal voice generally work well to convey the character's zipped-up manners. The Tom Stoppard script, however, is an exercise in triviality. The backdrop of the Enigma machine and "Shark" code is infinitely fascinating, but Stoppard put it into the context of a cliched and vaguely developed romantic liaison which rings false and generates little emotional response. The infallible Saffron Burrows, as Claire, does well and oozes intelligence and sensuality as usual, but the script really gives her little room to move. Director Michael Apted's attention-deficit editing renders the vital central relationship between Jericho and Claire unsympathetic by neglect; the legions of poorly paced flashbacks simply distract from the emotional thrust of the characters, and the one scene between Jericho and Claire that's supposed to move us -- the bedroom scene where she tries to take his notes -- rings completely false. So despite the best efforts of Scott and Burrows, Kate Winslet sashays in with a solid turn, downplaying her looks to play the mopey Hester with dogged charm and enough spunk to win us over.
Apted, who had shown his incompetent hand with Nell (one of Jodie Foster's most villified films) and The World Is Not Enough (the worst James Bond film since the mid-'80s), once again deserves most of the blame. The aforementioned flashback madness is one thing; Apted also has a tendency to fall in love with establishing shots, and to let scenes slow to a crawl. The excruciating first scene between Scott and Jeremy Northam (with the worst performance I've ever seen him give) is simply unbearable. Enigma has one of the worst car chases I've ever seen in a film, and most of the plot strands are so badly mashed together than the series of "memory" setups near the end is too little, too late. The film didn't keep me on board with the chain of detective work and plot developments, so the ending is a bust, especially its conclusions as to Claire's character. In order for the ending to make sense, Claire should have been set up as the true enigma to begin with -- and Saffron Burrows would have been more than up to the task of dominating the story. Instead, she's given so little time that we're never invited to ask who she really is, what she's like. So when she suddenly gains importance in the 11th hour, I simply shrugged it off.
Enigma, to me, is too jealous of giving away vital information necessary for the audience to understand, rejoice in, and further explore its story developments. And given the quality of the cast and the freshness of the topic, its failure is all the more deplorable.
Movie Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
Perhaps if I'd seen the movie without reading the book I may have found something to like in it. As it was, I had read and enjoyed the novel by Harris, so I expected the movie to match the vivid imagery of the book. I suppose Cinema 101 teaches novices that a movie should not try and mimic the printed word. But it behooves a director to immerse himself or herself in the mind of the writer, especially if the poor ... is a decent one like Harris.All the elements that Harris skilfully employs in his story - the cold, the grime, the fatigue, the hunger, the revolting food (whale meat!) and the utter poverty of a war-torn country - these are totally absent in the movie. Everyone is fresh as a dewdrop, wears spotless clothes straight out of the laundry, and goes about in bright sunshine. In fact the movie starts out on the wrong foot - pigeons in London on a bright sunny day. Now I'm sure the sun shines a fair bit on merry England, but what a poor comparison next to Harris writing about a blacked-out Cambridge in the winter of 1940. I gave up after a half hour of hoping things'd improve.
The parallel with Forsyth's "Day of the Jackal" is apt, where the movie just could not deliver the grip of the written word. On the other hand, another movie with a similar plot - "In the Line of Fire" was absolutely top-notch. Perhaps it is that movies made from good books can never satisfy the readers. Overall, I'd say buy the paperback instead and don't look back.
Movie Review: Just Doesn't Gel
Summary: 2 Stars
Any movie in which the star spends his penultimate scene explaining what's been happening, is in trouble. Humphrey Bogart managed it in "The Maltese Falcon," but Dougray Scott is no Bogart. As a leading man he lacks just about everything. I caught this film on TV after the opening credits had rolled and didn't recognize Kate Winslet until her name showed up at the end. The plot comes at you from every point on the compass: Britain, Russia, Germany, Poland, America; but basically it's about a German spy working inside the code-breaking team in the UK during WW2. You're left at the end with more or less a big "Huh?"Movie Review: 2 stars out of 4
Summary: 2 Stars
The Bottom Line:
A rather tepid thriller that wastes a quietly interesting performance by Kate Winslet, Enigma follows a bored Dougray Scott through a pedestrian series of events--look elsewhere.