The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by
The combined talents of Apted, Stoppard and the stellar cast make Enigma a puzzle worth solving.
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom, United States, Germany · 2001
Rated R · 1h 59m
Director Michael Apted
Starring Dougray Scott, Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows, Jeremy Northam
Genre Drama, Mystery, Romance, Thriller, War
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During the heart of World War II, Nazi U-boats changed Britain's Enigma Code. Authorities enlist Tom Jericho to help them break the code. Meanwhile, Tom's love, Claire, has disappeared. To find her, Tom seeks Claire's best friend, Hester. In investigating Claire's personal life, the pair discovers personal and collective betrayals.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by
The combined talents of Apted, Stoppard and the stellar cast make Enigma a puzzle worth solving.
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
The mystery of Enigma is how a rich historical subject, combined with so much first-rate talent -- a highly capable (if not always exciting) director, a fine English cast, a script by Tom Stoppard -- could have yielded such a flat, plodding picture.
Doesn't coddle the audience. But neither does it play fair. The narrative takes several fast turns and stops short with the sudden introduction of new material; the exposition is hurried and lazily predicated on characters' thinking aloud.
New Times (L.A.) by Jean Oppenheimer
Certainly a terrific sense of urgency underlies the story and Tom's desperation over Claire is palpable, but that may not be enough for viewers who actually like to understand how the riddle is unraveling.
Intelligent, involving and intricately plotted thriller.
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
It is such a grand, romantic entertainment that it sweeps the viewer along in its swiftly escalating suspense.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
The film manages to crack all its codes, and even when it sags a bit, it's never lacking grace and some wit. Not enigmatically at all, it pleases and teases us -- in high style.
Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman
A turgid muddle of romance, espionage, and geek valor, despite intimations that it might have turned into ''A Reasonably Dapper-Looking Mind.''
New York Magazine (Vulture) by Peter Rainer
Stoppard and his director, Michael Apted, must be aware of how dry their film is, because periodically they work in little thriller divertimenti -- car chases and such -- that only serve to point up how un-thrilling everything is.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
All these good elements have resulted in a movie that is not so much awful as mediocre, disconnected and ultimately incomprehensible.
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