Enigma

An intensely intellectual and emotional WWII spy story about British code breakers, Enigma is an intricate, twist-packed story of intrigue, obsession, and romance peopled with extraordinary performances and engrossingly mysterious characters. Dougray Scott stars as a mathematician deciphering Nazi radio traffic in the days leading up to a German U-boat attack on a massive Allied convoy. He's a haggard, unshaven wreck, but only a sly, subtle menacing secret service agent (Jeremy Northam) who is hunting for spies knows the reason behind Scott's unraveling: a beautiful file clerk has gone missing (Saffron Burrows). To save himself and to protect Burrows, who is most definitely up to something, Scott persuades the girl's bookish housemate (Kate Winslet) to help him launch a clandestine investigation of their own. Blessed with the deliciously luxurious dialogue and dexterous plot juggling of screenwriter Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love), Enigma serves up an impressively elaborate web of intrigue, frazzled emotion and palpable wartime tension. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)