Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Deep-Thought In 1995 the British declassified Station X, the ultra-secret WWII Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park, 50 miles from London. In 1999, the BBC aired a 4-part documentary about Station X. I first learned about Alan Turing when Nova (the American equivalent of the BBC's Horizon) aired a version of "Station X" cut down to a single 2-hour episode. "Enigma" was released in 2001, well before the present surge of general interest in Bletchley Park and Turing's extraordinary life that has given us "The Imitation Game" (December 2014). Back then it must have been easier to create a fictitious character (Tom Jericho) based on Turing, the eccentric, painfully socially awkward mathematical genius who was one of the stars of Station X. Unfortunately, "Enigma" isn't spectacular even if you don't know anything about Alan Turing. The plot: In March of 1943, codebreakers at Station X discover to their horror that the German navy has changed the code sets used to communicate with U-boats at sea. These were based on the famous and diabolically complex encryption machine known as the Enigma. (That actually happened.) Authorities enlist the help of a brilliant young mathematician, one Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott) to help them, as they put it, find their way back into the code. The possibility of a spy in Station X uis raised, and Tom's love interest, Claire (the 6-foot-tall Saffron Burrows), has disappeared. To solve these mysteries, Tom recruits Claire's best friend, Hester Wallace (based on the historical person Joan Clarke and played by Kate Winslet). While investigating Claire's personal life, the pair discover personal and international betrayals involving the now-infamous Katyn massacre in Poland. Of course, Tom and Hester fall in love. Dougray Scott actually looks more like Alan Turing than does Benedict Cumberbatch ("The Imitation Game"), but there the resemblance to Turing mostly ends. Turing's sorry, shabby reward for the instrumental role he played in winning the war for Britain was to be persecuted during the Cold War because his homosexuality was viewed as a security risk. He committed suicide at the age of 41. Tom Jericho is most assuredly NOT homosexual, nor is he borderline autistic, which is how Turing is played by Cumberbatch.The film does well something that had not been done before, namely to recreate the physical setting at wartime Bletchley Park, especially the Enigma machines themselves and the now-famous decrypting machines Turing invented, the "Bombes."While "Enigma" looks good and plays fairly well as an espionage yarn, the viewer who knows the factual background of this piece of fiction will be dissatisfied. It is surprising that this rather wan film is the work of Tom Stoppard and Michael Apted; they have done better.

akorowajczyk I'm absolutely shocked by the story. Indeed, one fact trouble me. The story of Bukowski who lost his brother in Katyń. Then, he started to work with Germans. It is such a pity that the director or maybe the scenarist is a such a big ignorant in history. How he can imagine that a brother of polish officer could be a traitor? Because, if he really worked with Germans he would be automatically condemmned to the dead by the polish government which resided in England. The authority of this government was very strong during the Second War and it is imaginable that a brother of the hero could became a traitor. Because, in this times each collaborator was a traitor and the most of them were judged and condemmned to the dead, even women. And people in Poland was very aware of the Nazi. So, the personality of Bukowski was it's very offensive for Katyń's families. If he wanted a person of polish traitor he could search among the folksdeutchs, but not among a Polish subordinate to the polish temporary government in London. But, maybe it it would be to match for his limited mind.

ianlouisiana Ask a sailor on the Atlantic Convoys whether he would rather be sitting in a warm,dry and safe office crunching numbers and doing crosswords back in England and I imagine the answer,if printable at all,would be resoundingly positive.My sympathy for the poor beleaguered mathmoes and misfits,weirdoes and space cadets who made up the battalions of Codebreakers is strictly limited.I'm not saying they didn't do an essential job,I'm just saying they should have got on with it without any prima donna - type whingeing and flouncing in and out of doors in a huff.There are people dying out there - get a grip. Our hero codebreaker Tom Jericho(Mr Dougray Scott) is a typical unworldly Cambridge Man who can't take rejection and is slaughtered when posh totty Claire( Miss Saffron Burrows)dumps him.Recalled from the Funny Farm when the German Navy changes it's Code,he has red eyes,stubble and downturned lips,just so you know he is really upset.To add to his woes,Claire has gone missing and the Secret Service(Mr Jeremy Northam,smooth as a young Nigel Patrick)suspects she may be a spy,therefore he is tainted with guilt by association. The Germans uncover the Katyn Forest atrocity - perpetrated by our gallant allies the Russians during their occupation of Poland - and the Codebreakers pass the information on but the Government keeps it under wraps for fear of upsetting good old Uncle Joe Stalin.(In reality,the Russians had done everything they could do frame the Germans for the massacre,including using German firearms.It wasn't until 45 years after the war ended that the "enlightened" President Gorbachev admitted his country's guilt,by which time their grip on Eastern Europe had loosened). With Miss Kate Winslet - done up like a plump Lettice Leaf - as Claire's erstwhile chum,Mr Scott sets off to find her and crack the new German Code in one single bound. There is amusing Old Sea Dog nonsense from Mr Corin Redgrave who has some of the best Tom Stoppard dialogue. But generally,"Enigma" is a pretty routine 1950s British World War Two movie brought up to date with a smidgen of sex and a smattering of bad language.The "romance" between Mr Scott and Miss Winslet must have developed while I blinked an eye and his change from wimpish drama queen to testosterone - fuelled hero at the end is just a tad unconvincing. Fifty years earlier,Mr Dirk Bogarde and Miss Virginia Mckenna would have made a much better job of it.

Leszek5 This movie is huge falsification of history. First of all - Polish mathematicians and cryptologists decrypted Enigma several years before WWII. Decrypting machines were already built. You may read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptanalysis_of_the_Enigma But Polish contribution to the story in this movie is mentioned in this movie in one single phrase. But there is even worse point. The only bad character of the movie is a Pole! Author of this stupid scenario invented Polish guy who would be able to betray allies and become a German spy. What an absurd ! This 'author' probably knows nothing about polish attitude to Nazis during WWII. Poland during WWII had two occupants and two enemies - Nazi Germany and Soviet Union. But no one would join one enemy against the other. It was impossible. But not for makers of this movie. If Pukowski were a real man, after revealing the truth about Katyn, he would probably commit suicide.