Yes, a historical film. A good one. For the embroidery of details. For performances. For love story, secrets. And survive. And for smart way to remind an episode from WWII.

Period WW2 geekfest movie shot with admirable British restraint. Well cast and fairly well scripted, if a little complex, but very well acted fictional thriller based on the Nazi code messaging system for its frighteningly deadly unter seaboot corps in its North Atlantic theatre destroying Allied supply ship convoys, principally en route to bulk up the soviet Union's resistance against the might of the of the German Panzer Corps, Wermacht front line infantry, Waffen SS and winter trained mountain corps. If you want to see them all in action then don't watch this film but other action based war movies with them in.This isn't an action war movie, the closest it gets to it is a wound up maths geek biffing his boss on the chin. This is like a pure strategy console game, a long puzzle giving us piece upon piece to solve. It's not fabulously handled by the writer-director partnership in this regard, but the drama certainly is. This is a complex strategic mystery thriller made by straight drama experts rather than complex spy thriller experts but nonetheless I love it, because they get the feel of it spot on and get exceptional performances out of Winslet in particular as a believable female nerd, and Northam as the flamboyant posh police inspector in charge of the high level case.Has a great old fashioned atmosphere helped along with a superbly chosen score of contemporary swing music and Mendlesson, very classy! Highly recommended for a rare geek's look at the non combat roles played in the real war against the dense grain of the overwhelmingly action movie infested WW2 canon.

Thomas Jericho (Dougray Scott) is brought back to Bletchley Park to decrypt the new version of the Enigma machine specially made for U-boats. He's been away after a mental breakdown. There is a large convoy coming across the Atlantic and the Allies are newly blind. There is a suspected spy as the Nazis seems to be changing their ways. Tom is searching for his missing girlfriend Claire Romilly (Saffron Burrows) along with her flatmate Hester Wallace (Kate Winslet). Meanwhile Wigram (Jeremy Northam) is searching for the mole.Dougray Scott gives a tiresome performance especially at the beginning when his character is world weary. Kate Winslet is playing a mousy character. All the flashbacks are pretty boring. Saffron Burrows is doing supermodel level of acting. Their great love never seem so great. The movie is a bore when this should be a thrilling spy story. In the end, I don't care about Jericho. That would be workable if Jericho actually turns out to be the mole. That would be quite a nice noir touch. Also the act of code breaking is not done that well. Although doing code breaking well has never been easy.

Enjoyable, smart WWII thriller about code breaking, based on a true story, and notable for being a war film more about human intelligence then daring action. The script by Tom Stoppard is strong. It's very good film, but some irritating flaws keep it from being great. With the exception of Kate Winslet, a lot of the acting is over the top. Also, the film wimps out on the true story, and misses some fascinating complexity, since in real life the lead character was gay, at a time where that alone was enough to win everyone's distrust. Further, the whole style of the film feels old-fashioned in a way that goes back and forth between charming and forced. Last, at least the US version is a really bad DVD transfer. Lots of soft spots, etc. And yet, I'd still urge people to see it.