Review: ‘Enigma’ marked by solid acting

Geoff Carter

Friday, May 10, 2002 | 8:29 a.m.

Enigma

In Michael Apted's World War II drama "Enigma," the geeks finally have their say. Sure, Russell Crowe plays a mathematician in "A Beautiful Mind," but he was also a math geek with the body of an Adonis.

The code-breakers of England's Bletchley Park -- the think-tank that broke the Nazis' Enigma code and helped turn the tide of the war -- are presented in "Enigma" as stutterers, would-be communists and assorted eggheads with strange mustaches and bad haircuts. Even the best-looking and smartest of them, Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott), looks like hell.

That's appropriate, seeing as he's been there. Jericho, a fictionalized Cambridge scholar (similar to "U-571" and "Pearl Harbor," "Enigma" takes liberties with the historical record), helped the Bletchley Park team break the Enigma code, which is created by a computer-like machine. Jericho helped create a pseudo-mainframe to interpret the Enigma's messages (in real life, it was created by Alan Turing), but the pressures of that endeavor didn't faze him. Predictably, perhaps, Jericho loses his mind over a woman.

Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows) is seen only in flashbacks, but her effect on Jericho is lasting. When she "moved on," as Jericho lightly puts it, she devestated him, sending him to a sanitarium in the process. He is called back to Bletchley when the Nazis modify Enigma, but he really returns to find Claire -- who, as it turns out, has gone missing and is suspected of treason. Jericho enlists the help of her old roommate, Hester Wallace (a perfect Kate Winslet), and tries to track Claire down even as British Intelligence watches his every move; they're suspicious of him, too.

More precisely, Jericho is watched by Wigram, played by Jeremy Northam. Northam, last seen as film star Ivor Novello in "Gosford Park," is a wicked delight here, teasing and torturing Jericho with bemused glee. "You fell out of your pram, didn't you?" he grins at Jericho. Later, when Jericho suggests that Claire was seeing another man, Northram deadpans, "Yes, they were seeing each other's brains out."

Ultimately, the reductive Jericho wakes up and becomes a hero. He evades his pursuers, discovers ways to break the code again and even begins to woo Hester, who he calls "Miss Wallace" until late in the film. (After a hair-raising car chase, he says to her, "I think we're ready for first names now.")

"Enigma" isn't so much about WWII as it is about Jericho's war, and the cunning he shows in eventually repelling his demons. Scott makes an impressive show here, going from the basement to the stars and earning every step.

"Enigma" is a solidly entertaining film, tautly written by Tom Stoppard and directed with an artist's eye by Apted. John Barry's gorgeous score gives the proceedings real emotion. It's the first film produced by Mick Jagger's Jagged Films, and true to its master's voice, you get satisfaction from its well-told story.