Enigma

Enigma features some excellent performances from actors who are too interesting to be American. There’s Dougray Scott as World War II code-buster Tom Jericho, Jeremy Northam as British intelligence officer Wigram, and Kate Winslet, who gives an uncanny performance as Hester Wallace, transcriber of codes. The story is a convoluted, but ultimately complete, tale of the confluence of code-breaking and heart-breaking. Saffron Burrows plays a woman who may be spying on the residents of Britain’s code-breaking camp, and Scott plays her rejected lover. He teams up with Winslet when Burrows goes missing, bringing intelligence officer Northam into the mix as suspicions about spying swirl around the bawdy British countryside. A bit too reserved to be completely compelling, Enigma is nevertheless a well-made and entertaining film whose 117 minutes go down as smoothly as a milky cup of English breakfast tea.