I was in the mood

I was in the mood for an espionage flick the other night and, not
seeing anything that tripped my trigger in the new releases section,
went browsing and ultimately wound up picking out Enigma.
I've seen this movie a few times and I should just buy it, because I
will keep on renting it. Based on the Robert Harris novel of the same
name, the story revolves around a brilliant, but fresh off a nervous
breakdown, mathematician named Tom Jericho. Jericho, disgraced in an
era where mental illness didn't purportedly exist, has nonetheless been
pulled back into Bletchley Park. The reason for Jericho's reappearance?
The German U-Boats have gone completely off-line: they've switched
codebooks and blocked the Brit codebreakers out---right before a large
convoy of ships from America, bearing Allied war material, hits the
mid-Atlantic, out of reach of air support and rescuing. It's essential
that Shark, the U-boat code, is cracked, but it seems an impossible
task to accomplish in the few short days offered.
Add into this, the woman Jericho had been seeing before his breakdown,
has disappeared. Quickly he discovers, with the help of her best
friend, that her disappearance and the abrupt lock-out of Shark are
intertwined. I simply have no idea, when we get so much absolute crap
out of Hollywood, how this film was overlooked. It's wonderful. It was
written by Tom Stoppard, who I believe is our modern-day Shakespeare,
and whose screenplay actually makes the movie better than the book. I
read Harris novel quite some time ago, but it failed to make a lasting
impression on me, mainly because of his convoluted explanations of what
an Enigma machine actually did, and how much goddamn math was involved
to break it. The movie, however, is much, much better and a must-see
for anyone interested in what's involved in code-breaking, let alone
anyone who, like myself, is a spy-movie junkie.
The performances, wonderful to start out with, yet somehow manage to
improve with multiple viewings. In particular Jeremy Northam's smarmy
spy-catcher, Wigram. The character is just so damn snotty and superior
you can't help but be absorbed in watching all of the various maneuvers
Northam makes to bring this man to life---because, honestly and truly,
you don't notice them the first time around: you're too busy wondering
what his game is. On second viewing, however, the words, while
important, lose some of their hold on you. You start to notice the
little things that Northam did to make this man come to life, like the
way he walks with absolute confidence, as if he's a man in control of
his environment and faculties. The coat worn draped over the shoulders,
which no one but the most confident of men can ever get away with. The
gleeful twitchiness that comes over him, which he doesn't bother to
restrain, when he interrogates Jericho. It's truly one of the
overlooked performances of the decade because of its subtlety. If this
movie had come out around Christmas time, I'd wager that Northam would
be propping open his back door with an Oscar right about now. So,
anyway, longwinded as usual, but go and rent this. It's well worth two
hours of your time.