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By Dan Leone

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BEFORE THE ANYTHING -goes gold rush of digital FX technology turned action adventure films into pixilated pissing contests ("Our film's fireball explosions are bigger than yours!"), movies had to rely on old-fashioned plot mechanics and character-based derring-do to get pulses racing. These days, tense-eyed tales of spy vs. spy espionage usually come equipped with more firepower than several blitzkriegs combined, which makes the low-key British WWII thriller Engima such a welcome anomaly. Sure, it's not afraid to indulge in the odd U-boat-go-boom moments, but the lives lived on the edge of danger here are fueled more by brains than brawn. It's 1943, and English intelligence agents must break a new Nazi code days before an imminent attack at sea. The only man who can do it is ace brainiac Tom Jericho (Dougray Scott), a neurotic code-cracker who cracked himself into a breakdown over a fellow agent (Saffron Burrows) now gone missing. Her disappearance, however, may be the key to the puzzle, if only Tom and his objet d'amour's housemate (Kate Winslet) can solve the mystery in time. Calling forth the ghosts of British cinema and Boys Adventure Digests past, Enigma's bygone-era design milks suspense through tense exchanges and uncovered clues. Scripted hyperintelligently by playwright Tom Stoppard, a writer fluent in the expert coding and deciphering of language, the emphasis on words occasionally clashes with The World Is Not Enough director Michael Apted's need for giving modern audiences kinetic "speed." Casting Burrows as the impenetrable love interest seems inspired more by legginess than line reading, but the chemistry between Scott and Winslet – two sleuths that make frumpiness look white-hot – and Enigma's ability to turn cerebral talk into action currency very nearly render the film's faults completely forgivable. (David Fear)