Themes: Love Triangles, Women During Wartime, Traitorous Spies/Double Agents
Main Cast: Matthew MacFadyen, Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows, Jeremy Northam, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Release Year: 2001
Country: UK
Run Time: 117 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The true story of a major breakthrough in intelligence technology created during World War II provides the backdrop for this blend of mystery, romance, and espionage, based on the novel by Robert Harris. Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) is a gifted mathematician who is working with the British government on the development and maintenance of the Enigma machine, an electronic device that allows Allied intelligence agents to decode scrambled messages sent by Germany military officers. But the emotionally fragile Jericho is buckling under both the pressure of his work and the collapse of his relationship with Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows), a co-worker with whom he's fallen deeply in love. After suffering a minor breakdown, Jericho is sent on a leave of absence, but when he returns to work, a crisis awaits: it seems the Germans have instituted a new code that the Enigma is not yet able to crack, and Jericho is needed to help unravel Axis communiqués before an important convoy of troops and materiel sets sail. It is also suspected that a German undercover agent has infiltrated the Enigma project, and Wigram (Jeremy Northam) is determined to ferret them out. In the midst of all this, Jericho receives troubling news that Claire has gone missing -- and that a file of German messages waiting to be decoded was found at her home. As Jericho works against the clock to crack the new German code, he forms an initially uneasy alliance with Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet), Claire's roommate and a fellow member of the Enigma project, as they try to discover Claire's whereabouts. Enigma was co-produced by Mick Jagger, who has a keen interest in the history of the real-life Enigma project, and even owns one of the original Enigma decoding machines. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Despite its old-fashioned moral compass and tendency to disguise hugh chunks of unwieldy World War II exposition as dialogue, this docudrama manages to entertain on the strength of its plucky heroine, haunting femme fatale, and aura of innocence lost. Kate Winslet, glammed down and hiding behind spectacles, is the mystery-obsessed gal Friday for whom it's impossible not to root. Saffron Burrows, in a series of alluring flashbacks, is the real enigma haunting tortured mathematical genius/hero Dougray Scott. The sexual tension between Winslet's Hester Wallace and Scott's Tom Jericho is strictly pro forma, as is the eventual whodunit denouement. In-between, though, there are fascinating glimpses of cryptological history, plenty of period detail, and enough tweed-garbed mucking around in the English countryside to fill an entire PBS miniseries. Ultimately, veteran director Michael Apted's picture is an absurd anachronism, but one that holds onto the strength of its convictions, resulting in a watchable enough piece of historical fluff. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Tom Hollander - Logie; Corin Redgrave - Admiral Trowbridge; Robert Pugh - Skynner; Tom Fisher - Upjohn; Edward Hardwicke - Heaviside; Angus MacInnes - Commander Hammerbeck; Nicolas Rowe - Villiers; Donald Sumpter - Leveret; Michael Troughton - Mermagen; Tim Bentinck - U-Boat Commander; Mary Macleod - Mrs. Armstrong; Emma Buckley - Land Army Girl; Adrian Preater - RAF Corporal; Matthew MacFadyen - Cave; Richard Leaf - Baxter; Ian Felce - Proudfoot; Bohdan Poraj - Pinker; Paul Rattray - Kingcome; Richard Katz - De Brooke; Anne-Marie Duff - Kay; Rosie Thomson - Duty Clerk; Mirjam De Rooij - Lady Lodger; Edward Woodall - Bletchley Brain; Hywel Simons - Male Lodger; Emma Davies - Pamela; Martin Glyn Murray - RAF Officer
Credit
Rod McLean - Art Director, Stuart Rose - Art Director, Jaap Verburg - Art Director, Ate de Jong - Associate Producer, Jeanney Kim - Associate Producer, Julian Plunkett-Dillon - Associate Producer, June Prinz - Boom Operator, Cathy Sandrich - Casting, Mary Selway - Casting, Amanda Mackey-Johnson - Casting, Marion Zilversmit - Casting, John Barry - Conductor, David Brown - Co-producer, Shirley Russell - Costume Designer, Nick Heckstall-Smith - First Assistant Director, Paul Higgins - First Assistant Director, Natasha Tahta - First Assistant Director, Michael Apted - Director, Arthur Wooster - Second Unit Director, Rick Shaine - Editor, Michael White - Executive Producer, Nigel Sinclair - Executive Producer, Guy East - Executive Producer, Hanno Huth - Executive Producer, Thomas Garvin - Executive Producer, Robert Aarts - Executive Producer, Victoria Pearman - Executive Producer, Jenny Shircore - Hair Styles, Anita Burger - Hair Styles, Susan Howard - Hair Styles, Marijhe Geheniau - Hair Styles, Jon Henry Gordon - Hair Styles, Sharon O'Brien - Hair Styles, Lesa Warrener - Hair Styles, David Broder - Location Manager, Jelani Isaacs - Location Manager, John Barry - Composer (Music Score), Abi Leland - Musical Direction/Supervision, Dan Rose - Musical Direction/Supervision, Diederik Van Middlekoop - Musical Direction/Supervision, Jenny Shircore - Makeup, Susan Howard - Makeup, Marijhe Geheniau - Makeup, Sharon O'Brien - Makeup, Lesa Warrener - Makeup, Trevor Coop - Camera Operator, Philip Sindall - Camera Operator, Tim Wooster - Camera Operator, John Beard - Production Designer, Seamus Mcgarvey - Cinematographer, Stef Tijdink - Cinematographer, Peter Talbot - Cinematographer, Peter Heslop - Production Manager, Angie Wills Production - Production Manager, Joep Bannenberg - Production Manager, Mick Jagger - Producer, Lorne Michaels - Producer, John Midgley - Production Sound, Helga Fitzner - Research, Jo Stones - Research, Eliza Solesbury - Set Designer, Wilko Van Amerongen - Sound Mixer, John Midgley - Sound/Sound Designer, Louis Elman - Sound/Sound Designer, Tom Lucy - Stunts, Nicholas Powell - Stunts, Derek Lea - Stunts, Ray L. Nicholas - Stunts, Gordon Seed - Stunts, Mark Archer - Stunts, Tracey Caudle - Stunts, Sarah Franzl - Stunts, Steve Griffin - Stunts, James Grogan - Stunts, Richard Hammett - Stunts, Tidd James - Stunts, Seon Rogers - Stunts, Anna Stacey - Stunts, Nicholas Powell - Stunts Coordinator, Tony Sale - Technical Advisor, Richard Styles - Unit Production Manager, Tom Stoppard - Screenwriter, Alan L. Stewart - Additional Cinematography, Baz Irvine - Additional Cinematography, Charity Hobbs Wood - Production Assistant, Wouter Thorn Leeson - Production Assistant, Katherine Lofting - Production Assistant, Marc Siegel - Production Assistant, Dave Jackson - Production Assistant, Isobel Thomas - Executive in Charge of Production, McDonald & Rutter - Publicist, Linda Gamble - Unit Publicist, Carlos De Carvalho - First Assistant Camera, Herman Verschuur - First Assistant Camera, Tim Battersby - First Assistant Camera, Uwe Kuipers - Gaffer, Lee Walters - Gaffer, Paul Stewart - Gaffer, Raymond Hall - Grip, Philip Coleman - Grip, Gary Hutchings - Grip, William Pennings - Grip, Malcolm Sheehan - Grip, Richard Van Der Oord - Grip, Pete Myslowski - Grip, Cliff Kohlweck - Music Editor, Josh Winget - Music Editor, Jeff Harlacker - Post Production Supervisor, Miranda Jones - Post Production Supervisor, Winnie Wishart - Production Coordinator, Fransje Bannenberg - Production Coordinator, Graeme Purdy - Properties Master, Dirk Tolman - Properties Master, John Hayward - Re-Recording Mixer, Cathy Doubleday - Script Supervisor, Polly Hope - Script Supervisor, Angela Noakes Wharton - Script Supervisor, Kristjan Knigge - Second Assistant Director, George Walker - Second Assistant Director, Paul Edwards - Steadicam Operator, Jaap A. Buitendijk - Still Photographer, Gary Coulter - Supervising Animator, Nigel Mills - Supervising Sound Editor, Antony Hunt - Visual Effects Producer, Angie Wills - Visual Effects Producer, Allan Hay - Costume/Wardrobe, Rob Ireland - ADR Editor, Paul Carr - ADR Mixer, Suttirat Larbarb - Assistant Art Director, Leo Zandvliet - Assistant Art Director, Suttirat Anne Larlarb - Assistant Art Director, Bianca Olijerhoek - Assistant Hair, Pete De Winton - Assistant Location Manager, Camilla Stephenson - Assistant Location Manager, Jon Duncan - Assistant Location Manager, Suzie Shearer - Assistant Production Coordinator, Michael King - Buyer, Brian Read - Buyer, Fiona Weir - Casting Assistant, Catherine Buyse Dian - Costumes Assistant, Nina Hartstone - Dialogue Editor, Gary Hutchings - Dolly Grip, Ian McFadyen - Draftsman, Joost Brouwer - Electrician, Paul Brown - Electrician, Glen Bruijntjes - Electrician, Patrick Dekker - Electrician, Marc Dresens - Electrician, Toby Flesher - Electrician, Paul Harris - Electrician, Joris Hetsen - Electrician, Stephen Mathie - Electrician, Eric Melville - Electrician, Lieuwe Mulder - Electrician, Steve O'Donoghue - Electrician, Leon Renkes - Electrician, Ezra Reverda - Electrician, Paul Sharp - Electrician, Marius Speller - Electrician, Olivier Ter Kuile - Electrician, Joe Tolen - Electrician, Martijn Van Broekhuizen - Electrician, Kim Van Honschooten - Electrician, Piers Vuure - Electrician, Daryl Jordan - First Assistant Editor, Andrew Blustain - First Assistant Editor, Gordon Antell - First Assistant Editor, Chris Lloyd - First Assistant Editor, Lionel Selwyn - Foley Artist, Ruth Sullivan - Foley Artist, John Ireland - Foley Editor, Brenda Coxon - Production Accountant, Dianne Twiddy - Production Accountant, Andrew Garnet-Lawson - Scenic Artist, Jo Dale - Second Assistant Editor, Valentina Giambanco - Second Assistant Editor, Mark Neale - Second Assistant Editor, Simon Emanuel - Second Second Assistant Director, Richard Styles - Second Unit Assistant Director, Anthony Wilcox - Second Unit Assistant Director, Mike Elliott - Second Unit Assistant Director, Nick Milner - Set Dresser, Rogier Bos - Set Dresser, Otto Kruysdijk - Set Dresser, Marcel Van Velden - Set Dresser, Ron Weverling - Set Dresser, Bob Sherwood - Set Dresser, Tony Wright - Storyboard Artist, Eliza Solesbury - Set Decorator, Robert Aarts - Co-Executive Producer, Robert Harris - Book Author, Louis Elman - ADR Voice Casting, Paul De Bruijn - Construction Foreman, John Jordan - Focus Puller, Carlos De Carvalho - Focus Puller, Herman Verschuur - Focus Puller, Erik Bannenberg - Focus Puller, Ben Chads - Focus Puller, Simon Heck - Focus Puller, Andrew Stephens - Focus Puller, Kevin Tayler - Foley Mixer, John Ireland - Foley Supervisor, Nick Shuttleworth - Runner, Phil Clarke - Runner, Anthony Wilcox - Third Assistant Director, Andrea Slater - Third Assistant Director, Demetri Jagger - Video Playback, Sarah Robinson - Art Department Coordinator, Ruben Rosen - Standby Carpenter
Set in 1943 amidst the largest convoy deployment from the US to Britain, cryptanalyst Tom Jericho returns to Bletchley Park to help find the code to the U-Boats' Enigma communications. On finding a cypher containing highly classified information, hidden by a former lover who has gone missing, he attempts to solve the code while working on cracking the German U-Boat code against a background of subterfuge, spies and the Katyn massacre.
The film was co-produced by Mick Jagger, who provided funding for the film, as well as access to his own Enigma machine. It was shot in England, Scotland and the Netherlands. Critical reviews were largely positive, although there was criticism of the largely fictional storyline which does not mention the real codebreaker Alan Turing.
The story takes place in March 1943 with the Second World War at its height and is loosely based on actual events. The cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, England, have a problem: the NaziU-boats have increased the security of key-changing of their Enigma machineciphers, leading to a blackout in the flow of naval vital signals intelligence. This could spell disaster in the critical Battle of the Atlantic, on whose outcome Britain's survival depends. The British cryptanalysts have cracked the "shark" cipher once before, and they need to do it again in order to keep track of U-boat locations and steer shipping convoys out of their way.
The plot follows the fictional character of the brilliant but maverick working classmathematician Tom Jericho (played by Dougray Scott). He is returned to Bletchley Park from Cambridge to assist with the crisis after recovering from a nervous breakdown brought on by overwork combined with an unhappy love affair with Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows), who works at Bletchley. Jericho immediately tries to see Claire again and finds that she mysteriously disappeared a few days earlier. He enlists the help of Claire's blue stocking housemate Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet), also working at Bletchley, to follow the trail of clues and learn what has happened to Claire.
Mr. Jericho and Miss Wallace, as they formally address each other, repeatedly break the rules of the Bletchley Park establishment and the law as their hunt for Claire gets more intense, especially after they discover that she's stolen and hidden some uncoded messages.
Jericho is closely watched by a suave MI5 agent Wigram (Jeremy Northam), who plays cat and mouse with him throughout the film. But Jericho's eccentricities are tolerated at the Park, despite his transgressions, because of the brilliant plan he devises for uncovering the new code key. The plan may unfortunately mean sacrificing at least one Allied convoy to the U-boats.
The film follows events as signals intelligence see a convoy spotted and then hunted down by the U-boats, but this gives enough information for the new key to be analysed using electro mechanical Bombe devices.
Tom and Hester's highly unofficial research uncovers a British government plot to bury the intelligence information of the Katyn massacre for fear it might weaken American willingness to remain in the war on the same side as Stalin.
This in turn leads to their suspicion that a Polish cryptanalyst, Jozef 'Puck' Pukowski (Nikolaj Coster Waldau) working at the Park may have been so incensed by his own learning of the massacre – which claimed the life of his brother – that he is prepared to betray Bletchley's secrets to the Nazis in order to take revenge on Stalin.
Jericho trails Puck to Scotland and catches up with him just as he's about to be taken on board a U-boat. But Wigram and the police have been trailing them both and the U-boat is bombed and sunk.
A short scene after the War sees Jericho and Hester married with a child on the way. It is implied that Claire, who was revealed to be an agent planted by Wigram, is still missing and unaccounted for. She is, however, spotted by Jericho as he waits on some steps for Hester (though it was possible that this was a hallucination, as she was wearing an evening dress and furstole).
The film was part-financed by Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones. Jagger makes a cameo appearance as an RAF officer at a dance. He also lent the film's design department a four-rotor Enigma encoding machine he owned to ensure the historical accuracy of one of the props. The festivities around the London premiere of the film are shown in the 2001 documentary Being Mick.
During the premiere in Edinburgh, Dougray Scott stayed for only fifteen minutes of the film. He went to a nearby pub to watch a Scottish Premier League football match between Rangers and his favourite team Hibernian. Co-producer Mick Jagger stayed away altogether.
Criticism
The scaled-down model of a World War II U-boat used in the film. The model was donated to the Bletchley Park museum.
The film - and by association the book - have attracted criticism for their portrayal of the Polish role in Enigmadecryption.[3] Critics argue that in the film the fictitious traitor turns out to be Polish whilst only slight mention is made of the contributions of pre-war PolishCipher Bureaucryptologists to Allied Enigma decryption efforts,[4] while historically, the only known traitor active at Bletchley Park was British spy John Cairncross who passed crucial secrets to the Soviet Union.[5]
The film has also been criticised for substituting the character of Jericho for Alan Turing. Jericho, who is clearly a stand-in for Turing, drops references to the Entscheidungsproblem and Turing machines, but is heterosexual and provides the love interest to the film (Turing was homosexual and prosecuted as such under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, he 'accepted' chemical castration via estrogen hormone injections and suffered further ostracism until his possible suicide in 1954). [6].
