by
Kevin Thomas, Times Staff Writer
LA Times, January, 1983
American-born but raised by a grandmother in East Berlin, Martin Sheen
has defected to Paris, where he regularly broadcasts speeches protesting the
lack of freedom and justice behind the Iron Curtain.
He strikes the CIA’s man in Paris (Michel Lonadale, too obviously
dubbed) as just the person to return to East Berlin and snatch a certain
microprocessor, which will somehow prevent the KGB from simultaneously
assassinating five Soviet defectors.
Considering the amount of exposition required to make clear even this
much—of course, this is only the beginning—it’s amazing that the film
shifts away from Sheen’s mission, which certainly seems enough of a challenge,
to add yet further complications. They
are a rivalry between a cocky KGB agent (Sam Neill), already on Sheen’s tail,
and his East German counterpart (Derek Jacobi).
Then there’s the matter of Sheen’s old flame (Brigitte Fossey), a
lawyer dedicated to defending dissidents and whose outspoken father has been
imprisoned in one of those “psychiatric hospitals.”
In the line of duty Fossey seduces Neill, who’s quickly thrown into a
conflict between love and duty. Meanwhile,
back to the quest for that microprocessor . . .
It hardly needs saying that “Enigma,” which was handsomely filmed in
France and the United Kingdom, tries to tell too many stories, with the result
that it is both tedious and unconvincing. It
was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and adapted by “Ghandi’s” screenwriter John
Briley from Michael Barak’s novel. Its
capable cast, which includes Frank Finlay as Neill’s superior, gets no help
from “Enigma’s” banal dialogue. You
can’t help but feel that Szwarc, a skilled, dedicated craftsman, wouldn’t
have had to do “Enigma” (rated PG for some nudity, some violence) had his
wonderfully romantic “Somewhere in Time” found the audience it so well
deserved.
An Embassy release of a Franco-British co-production. An Archerwest Ltd. S.F.P.C. co-production in association with I.F.K.G.F.I. and Perroquet Productions. Producers (U.K.) Peter Shaw, Ben Arbeid; producer (France) Andre Pergament, Director Jeannot Szwarc. Screenplay John Briley; based on the novel by Michael Barak. Camera, Jean-Louis Picavet. Art director, Francois Comtet. Film editor Peter Weatherley. With Martin Sheen, Sam Neill, Brigitte Fossey, Derek Jacobi, Michel Lonsdale, Frank Finlay, David Baxt, Kevin McNally, Michael Williams, Warren Clarke.
MPAA-rated: PG (some parental guidance advised.)