Enigma (2001)

Considering its lately peak of success I said myself to stay on british movie territory this week with a title that's a bit older. "Enigma" is something close to a spy story during World War 2, but to be more exact as a general feeling it's like a mix between drama, thriller and romance in a rhythm that resembles a bit "The English Patient" = it might seem to have some overlengths when you watch it, but the final compensates this.

The subject is placed at Bletchley Park, the british centre in charge with the german transmission decrypting during WW2, having as point of start the broken affair between a cryptanalist and an operator working in different sectors. Well, this becomes the intrigue for a complicated story with mysterious person dissapearings and leaks of information to the enemy. The movie is a bit overdramatized at some points, especially considering that all the action, that takes place exclusively around the mentioned base, is relatively calm. There is some documentary value also in the movie = you get to see a real Enigma encrypting machine, and at some points there are actual explanations about how all this stuff worked, but I doubt that these are clear enough for a normal viewer who doesn't know much about the topic. One of the worst parts of the movie is the cinematography, the idea of using filters with a pale tone for the flashbacks being horrible, considering the movie already has pretty warm chromatic and pretty much lacks the contrast, and to put the cherry on top it is slow paced ... so the visual feeling = go to sleep. As good parts, as usual in an UK made movie you have the casting, but the best I think it's the score, this being the last John Barry movie. From my point of view, John Barry was probably among the top three british composers in the last century, and one of the few that made a difference during the '60s and the '70s from the classic discreet to almost anemic typical Hollywood composing style in that period.

One last thing to say is that the movie is based on a novel by Robert Harris, probably more known after the recent Polanski's "Ghost Writer" also based on one of his novels. The idea is that if you liked the above title or "Archangel" another historical/politic/spy thriller with the same book author (although quite weak as a movie) you'll probably enjoy "Enigma" too. It's the same type of mix between events and even characters inspired from reality but placed in a fictive context that tends to seem like an alternative history for what really happened. Maybe in "Enigma"'s case is not that obvious, considering the less popular/known context :) but I don't have time for details on this now.. just enjoy the movie, to quote it "a rose is just plaintext" ;)

Rating: 3 out of 5