Robert Harris' 1995 bestseller "Enigma" was an engaging romantic thriller that shed light on the unsung heroism of the World War II cryptanalysts of the British codebreaking headquarters at Bletchley Park. Harris managed the trick of creating characters of more than one dimension who you actually cared about and who seemingly had a reality beyond their function in the plot line of his well-researched novel.<br /><br />Unfortunately, "Enigma" the movie, as scripted by Tom Stoppard and directed by the workmanlike Michael Apted, falls well short of a similar achievement. Primarily, a film like this stands or falls on the charisma of its leading man, but Dougray Scott's take on Harris' vulnerable but brilliant hero Tom Jericho is a curious one. His dour, drowsy performance is no doubt an attempt to capture the emotionally broken down state that Jericho finds himself in following the collapse of a doomed romance with Bletchley co-worker Claire (Saffron Burrows), but his doleful, heavy-lidded expression quickly becomes irritating. As the movie attempts to ratchet up the suspense, Scott remains withdrawn and spaced-out so that sequences that should be nail-biting - as in the novel - almost pass by unnoticed. What's desperately needed, breakdown notwithstanding, is a Jericho with a little intensity. Kate Winslet, always a watchable actress, fares rather better in the smaller role of the plain but spirited Hester, who attempts to help Tom solve the riddle of Claire's disappearance and of the stolen cryptograms found in her room. Jeremy Northam meanwhile offers an agreeably oily, snake-like turn as the Secret Service investigator who suspects that Claire or even Jericho may be a spy. No one else makes much of an impact. Supporting parts are low-powered and under-developed, particularly the pivotal character of Puck.<br /><br />There's such a dearth of thought-provoking cerebral movie thrillers that it is almost tempting to applaud "Enigma" simply for attempting to engage the brain rather than deliver the usual crowd-pleasing but mind-numbing thrills and spills. But that can hardly be an excuse for delivering a thriller entirely devoid of excitement, bogged down as it is with often clunky dialogue in which characters don't so much relate to each other like normal people, as spend most of the time spelling out the story so far or explaining the finer points of cryptanalysis for the evident benefit of the audience. Several key plot twists seem to occur in expository dialogue rather than being actually depicted, and this tendency increases as the film draws to its rushed, some would say botched, climax.<br /><br />Sadly, the only real enigma here is how such a strong and involving novel managed to translate so tediously from page to screen.