VividSimon Simply Perfect

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

adcore-38674 German military messages enciphered on the Enigma machine were first broken by the Polish Cipher Bureau, beginning in December 1932. This success was a result of efforts by three Polish cryptologist's, Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski, working for Polish military intelligence. Rejewski reverse-engineered the device, using theoretical mathematics and material supplied by French military intelligence. Subsequently the three mathematicians designed mechanical devices for breaking Enigma ciphers, including the cryptologic bomb. From 1938 onwards, additional complexity was repeatedly added to the Enigma machines, making decryption more difficult and requiring further equipment and personnel—more than the Poles could readily produce.On 26 and 27 July 1939,[3] in Pyry near Warsaw, the Poles initiated French and British military intelligence representatives into their Enigma-decryption techniques and equipment, including Zygalski sheets and the cryptologic bomb, and promised each delegation a Polish-reconstructed Enigma. The demonstration represented a vital basis for the later British continuation and effort.[4] During the war, British cryptologists decrypted a vast number of messages enciphered on Enigma. The intelligence gleaned from this source, codenamed "Ultra" by the British, was a substantial aid to the Allied war effort.Marian Rejewski was responsible for the initial analysis that enabled exploitation of the German ENIGMA cryptographic machine. Without his breakthroughs, which he provided to the French and British in 1939, the U.K. and U.S. may have never been able to exploit ENIGMA. Mr. Rejewski's genius was that he recognized traditional attacks as useless against ENIGMA. He became the first to employ a higher-algebraic attack against any cryptographic system. His insight produced a solution that had evaded his French and British peers for a decade, and thanks to his contributions, ENIGMA-derived intelligence enabled U.S. and British efforts to defeat Germany.

Prismark10 Enigma is based on the fictional Robert Harris novel which is a part wartime thriller and part love story based on code breakers in Bletchley Park. It mixes fiction with some real characters and events. The book is gives a grim depictions of a war torn Britain which I am afraid endured for several decades after the war.Dougray Scott is a mathematician recovering from a breakdown after a doomed love affair. He returns to Bletchley to find out his ex lover, Claire has gone missing and there is pressure to crack the Enigma code and with intelligence officers crawling about, there might also be a mole in his team.Scott (with a variable accent) teams up with a dowdy Kate Winslet to investigate what happened to Claire and discover something more sinister.The film was adapted by Oscar winner Tom Stoppard. He introduces some new scenes and different climax from the book. He does well in keeping the grimness of domestic life and fashions of the time but its not a successful screenplay. Director Michael Apted struggles to give flair and spark to the film as it remains dour, dull and lifeless. Despite a few extravagant scenes it does look like a glorified television film.Scott and Winslet work well together but the film is too uneven, there are some good shots of the code breaking machines whirring around and some humorous scenes of the women working in Bletchley with the lecherous supervisor. The thriller element despite a good start fails to work and in this adaptation seems flawed.Jeremy Northam's acting is provided by his hat and his supercilious character has a habit of speaking lines that sound out of period.A disappointment especially as I enjoyed reading the novel.

Jonas1969 Enigma is not for the war buffs who want historical accuracy. Although the historical setting at the headquarters for code breaking during world war 2 is solid enough the characters we meet are fictional.The main character Thomas Jericho clearly has some connections to Alan Turing, but the differences are equally apparent to those who know the historical accounts, so anyone searching for a story about Turing should look elsewhere.If you can let go of this there is a good spy story to be had. Kate Winslet, Saffron Burrows and Dougray Scott are all excellent in the leading roles, but the supporting cast is equally good. Jeremy Northam's spy master is one of many highly entertaining portrayals.The intertwined stories along the way are perhaps more captivating than the main plot, but the ride we are taken on is well worth it.

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.