Enigma (2001)

Tom Stoppard’s adaptation of a Robert Harris World War II thriller set at Bletchley Park in 1943. Dougray Scott plays Tom Jericho, troubled code-breaking “genius”. Kate Winslet plays Hester Wallace, best friend of Tom’s ex-girlfriend who has gone missing. The pair team up to look for the missing girl and also to crack the code that could prevent Nazi U boats attacking an Allied shipping convoy. It’s an intriguing, mostly low-key story with moments of suspense, but it’s less captivating and emotionally involving than the Alan Turing cryptography-themed biopic The Imitation Game (2014). Kate Windswept is endearing, but Jeremy Northam out-acts everyone else as the sinister Secret Service operative Mr. Wigram. Surprisingly, the film was co-produced by Mick Jagger, who has a brief cameo as an officer sat at a table during a dance. What’s unfortunate is that Alan Turing’s role in inventing the Enigma machine is completely overlooked. In fact, its creation is here attributed to a fictional character – another sad example of the glossing over of Turing’s remarkable achievements.