Enigma

British retro/spy melodrama at its least involving, Enigma is the latest in a fairly constant stream of recent World War Two reconstructions. By the time it opens, of course, there will probably be a nice brand new world war raging live and exclusive on CNN in your front room, so it’s doubtful whether there’s any real need to leave your house. At any event, Enigma is an inherently drab and forgettable affair, chiefly notable for its sluggish pace, scarcity of action, and extreme Englishness. There have been worse films in cinema’s history, but it’s hardly the type of thing that changes lives.

Plot: midway through the war in 1943, mathematical genuis Jericho (Dougray Scott) returns to the Bletchley Park code-cracking base Station X after suffering a nervous breakdown during an ill-fated romance with Saffron Burrows: the dastardly Krauts have mysteriously changed the Enigma code they use to communicate with their U-boats, and Jericho must break the code and solve the painful mystery of his lover’s disappearance.

The opportunity existed here for a moving, exciting experience; what unfolds is just too tedious, dull, earnest and curiously old-fashioned to hold the attention. Scott struggles solidly enough with an unrewarding leading role, but the over-complicated script and utterly pedestrian direction all combine to create pure torpor.

Searching amid the waste for good points, there isn’t much to hold onto: Kate Winslet and Jeremy Northam chip in plenty of effort, and the codebreakers’ contribution is explained in fairly labyrinthine fashion. But as pure entertainment, Enigma just doesn’t register. No fun.