"Heroic Code Breakers"
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What You Need To Know:
ENIGMA begins in Bletchley Park, Britain’s top secret enclave of code breakers, in 1943 as Nazi U boats are chasing an Allied convoy crossing the Atlantic to help sustain the British war effort. Mathematician Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) has been recalled to Bletchley after successfully breaking the German code years before. Now, the German Navy has suddenly and inexplicably changed the code, and 141 Allied ships loaded with 10,000 men and crucial supplies are at terrible risk. The effort to break the new code is hampered by the search for a spy.
ENIGMA is a terrific story that is fast-paced, wonderfully acted and smart enough to keep viewers guessing until the very end (if they haven’t read the novel). Secret Service Agent Wigram (played by Jeremy Northam) and Jericho are caught up in a psychological war in the midst of the larger world war they are fighting. Kate Winslet is captivating as Hester, a reserved woman who blossoms into a bold and passionate partner to Jericho as they struggle together to understand the personal and patriotic betrayal of a friend. The movie’s moral worldview is spoiled by a brief, but intense, sex scene
Content:
(BB, PP, C, H, LL, V, SS, NN, A, D, M) Moral worldview with strong themes of “greater good” and sacrifice portrayed as Allied Forces fight evil of Hitler and eventually uncover Russian massacre, patriotic worldview in wartime, negative view of traitors harming war effort, allusion to Allied cover-up of wartime atrocity for political purpose of winning war; main characters meet in church, which is depicted as a normal activity; humanistic focus on man’s ability to break code with machines and sheer human intelligence alone; 13 obscenities and profanities; a few violent scenes, mostly fistfights, more intense than graphic and bloody; very brief but intense scene of intercourse with partial nudity, movement and sound; alcohol use; smoking; and, intense scenes of psychological manipulation, confrontation and betrayal.
More Detail:
ENIGMA begins in Bletchley Park, Britain’s top secret enclave of code breakers, in 1943 as Nazi U boats are chasing an Allied convoy crossing the Atlantic to help sustain the British war effort. Mathematician Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) has been recalled to Bletchley after successfully breaking the German code years before. Now, the German Navy has suddenly and inexplicably changed the code, and 141 Allied ships loaded with 10,000 men and crucial supplies are at terrible risk.
Jericho broke the previous code in 10 months, but this time he has only four days. All this is complicated by British Intelligence’s suspicions that a spy at Bletchley is somehow behind the code change. British secret service agent Wigram (Jeremy Northern) arrives to root out the spy, while Jericho and Bletchley code transcriber Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet) work frantically to stay one step ahead of Wigram and find the spy and Jericho’s former lover, Claire (Saffron Burrows), who is somehow tangled in it all.
ENIGMA is a terrific story that is fast-paced, wonderfully acted and smart enough to keep the audience (if you have not read the novel) guessing until the very end. Dougray Scott and Jeremy Northern achieve a dynamic chemistry as the shrewd agent who works to trap the brilliant and increasingly unnerved code breaker, Jericho. Wigram and Jericho are caught up in a psychological war in the midst of the larger world war they are fighting. Winslet is captivating as Hester, the reserved and less than beautiful roommate to sensual Claire. Hester eventually blossoms into a bold and passionate partner to Jericho as they struggle together to understand the personal and patriotic betrayal of a friend.
Not only does ENIGMA keep viewers guessing until the end, it teaches them about the historic Enigma machine and the secret camp at Bletchley Park. It also spotlights for the first time the heroic men and women who worked hard and with little reward and recognition to save countless lives by unraveling the German codes. ENIGMA’s complex characters grow and change. Although Jericho and Wigram are in conflict throughout the story, the “greater good” sought by all remains universal and constant. In a time where world conflict and national security are current and provocative issues, ENIGMA serves to remind us of our history and past efforts to band together to fight and overcome great evil. Its main flaw is that the men and women of Bletchley succeed by sheer human effort, determination and wits alone. There is also a brief, but intense, sex scene.
ENIGMA honors not only the men and women of Bletchley Park, but the ideals of sacrifice for the greater good, the value of human life, and loyalty to country and one’s fellow human beings.