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558 N. Main St.,
Prineville, OR 97754
Phone: 541.447.6205 |
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| Enigma review by Dave Richards |
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 | | | Enigma stars Dougray Scott as a mathematics genius on the search for his missing ex-girlfriend |
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Grade: B+
On a fairly slow movie week, it's nice to know that one cinema in central Oregon offers a couple of other choices than the mainstream releases.
Pilot Butte Cinemas in Bend features one or two limited release films a week and now playing under that category is the surprising Enigma, a dramatic love story set in WWII about code breaking.
The film stars Dougray Scott as Tom Jericho, a genius mathematician who is enlisted at Bletchley Park, England's high-scale code-breaking center, to help crack some new codes involving Nazi U-Boats and an endangered Allied merchant shipping convoy.
Jericho is baffled by the problem, but is presently more interested in the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend, Claire (Saffron Burrows), a woman he seems obsessed with and someone who, if found, may also know the answers of Bletchley Park's code-breaking problems.
Things start to get interesting when Jericho visits Claire's place of residence and discovers some original cryptograms under the floor boards. Shortly after, at his own residence, Jericho is visited by a man named Wigram (Jeremy Northam) from the secret service, and after panicking, Jericho throws the cryptograms into the fire place.
Enigma is almost flawless from this point on, especially with the addition of Claire's best friend Hester (Titanic's Kate Winslet), who aids Jericho on both his search to find his ex-love and his search for his code-break dilemma.
This film reminded me somewhat of last year's A Beautiful Mind, based on the life of Nobel Prize winner John Nash.
The two pictures have similarities in that both feature love interests, Enigma even having two, but while Nash was more obsessed with breaking codes, Jericho is clearly more obsessed with his feelings for Claire.
There is a highlight nestled into its running time of one hour and 58 minutes. It's the love story that evolves with Jericho and Hester. The two characters generate a great deal of on screen chemistry and spend so much time together, that it seems inevitable that the two would somehow find romance.
It still seems unexpected, though, even when we can sense it coming, especially in one scene where they kiss for the first time. It's a kiss that the two make on accident, but one that provides the film's most memorable scene.
Enigma isn't a typical film. It's well done, with the exception of the complex code breaking discussions, which becomes tiresome and confusing.
With minimal flaws, though, Enigma offers an escape from the mainstream, especially a welcome break from the action-packed blockbuster films of the summer.
**** Rated R for a sex scene and language.
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