(Enigma - Das Geheimnis [de] )
UK / USA / Germany / Netherlands 2001
d: Michael Apted
Universal Pictures Video (Region 2 de)
sc: Tom Stoppard (based on the novel by Robert Harri
c: Seamus McGarvey (Technicolor, Panavision)
e: Rick Shaine
pd: John Beard
m: John Barry
p: Lorne Michaels, Mick Jagger (Broadway Pictures [us] / Intermedia Films [gb] / Jagged Films [gb] / Meespierson Film CV [nl] / Mulholland Pictures BV [nl] / Senator Film Produktion GmbH [de])
w: Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows, Jeremy Northam, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Tom Hollander, Donald Sumpter, Matthew MacFadyen, Richard Leaf, Ian Felce, Bohdan Poraj, Paul Rattray, Richard Katz, Tom Fisher, Robert Pugh
pr: 22 Jän 2001
aw: Empire Awards, UK 2002 Empire Award Best British Actress Kate Winslet • Evening Standard British Film Awards 2002 Best Actress Kate Winslet • Hamptons International Film Festival 2001 Won Feature Film Prize in Science and Technology
rt: 113:48 min (+4%PAL= 119) min
dvd-rl: 22 Aug 2002
ar: 1.78:1 (16:9 Anamorphic Widescreen)
sd: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround • German Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
st: --
supp: • Interviews Electronic Press Kit with Mick Jagger and Robert Harris (15:04 min)
• Behind The Scenes: uncommented B-Roll (3:56 min)
• Cast and Director Filmographies
• Theatrical Trailer • Bonus Trailers for "The Others", "Animal - Das Tier im Manne", "Lucky Break - Rein oder Raus"
Bletchley Park WWII code-breakers Scott and Winslet battle to save the world. The cracking of the German Enigma machine and the diversity and oddity of the personnel involved should have provided for a fascinating and relevant story. Regrettably, Apted's film, from Robert Harris' romantic thriller, gets caught between the demands of crowd-thrilling adventure and psychologically compelling history, and satisfies neither. The director, his design team and camerman have ably recreated the ruddy, grey surface tones of 1943 Britain. But the stress is on surface. Psychological authenticity is, perhaps, too alienating for modern audiences, though it was a bold move to render Winslet so plain while giving all the glamour to the Veronica Lake-like femme fatale Burrows. Equally bold is the fractured playing of Scott's genius don. However, his late conversion to all-action hero strips the film of credibility.
— WH, Time Out Film Guide
•••••
Bletchley Park's real-life code breakers went unlauded until the '70s, when declassified details of their wartime service revealed that WWII espionage was more the purview of number nerds and crossword puzzle twerps than glamorous spies in the James Bond mold. Harris's thriller is a clever entertainment that uses history as a jumping-off point without being constrained by its details (Jericho, for example, was almost certainly inspired by mathematician Alan Turing, but the particulars of his character are entirely fictitious) but screenwriter Tom Stoppard's adaptation is surprisingly clunky. Given his way with witty banter, Stoppard's obvious, even leaden, dialogue is especially disappointing; director Michael Apted's handling of the story's frequent flashbacks is equally infelicitous. But the film's small pleasures include its thorough disinterest in macho heroics and things blowing up, Northam's slyly insinuating performance and the presence of a plain-jane heroine who isn't miraculously transformed into a knockout when she removes her glasses and lets down her hair.
— Maitland McDonagh, TV MovieGuide
