Enigma (Cinema: January 2002)

Mick Jagger produced WW2 nostalgia with Brit B-list of classical stereotypes - Kate Winslet, Dougray Scott & Jez Northam fictionalizing the exploits of codebreaker HQ, Bletchley Park.

The recreation of wartime British blandness works a little too well & the cast are all busy acting in different films: Scott perpetually tearful in Brief Encounter, Northam camping it up for The 39 Steps, a frumpy Winslet rolling up her sleaves for post-war equality and Saffron Burrows a bythenumbers femme fatale complete with red lipstick, tan stockings & a GI in every town. Which is not surprising as the film is never quite sure what it wants to be: a love tragedy, spy thriller, character study or period piece.

Where the TV series was a glorious sabre rattling detective story dragged into the present, the film is a rusty old bomb that never explodes. Where the TV series painted an elegant reconstruction of life at Bletchey Park, Enigma is a smudged photocopy that fails to pick out the mystery, romance, high drama & military gameplay that made Bletchey so famous & kept it a secret for 30 years after the war.

Confusing and unnecessarily complex, you'll need a codebreaker to keep up.

RATING:

(c)Limer 2002