I was fortunate enough to attended the Enigma premiere last night.  I haven't been to a premiere before so it was pretty exciting for me to see the paparazzi go wild with their cameras and flashes when someone famous turned up, you couldn't help but feel quite swept away by the experience. 

On entering the Odeon in Leicester Square everyone was asked to go direct to their seats for security reasons.  By complete accident we managed to time our arrival perfectly, we arrived just after Mick Jagger and just before Dougray Scott.  Mick Jagger was being interviewed and photographed in the lobby as we passed through.  We were directed up the stairs to the circle and stopped on the stairs to take a look at what was happening in the lobby. A few seconds later Dougray Scott walked up the stairs with (I guess) his publicist.  Dougray looked a bit haunted (or maybe slightly stressed), but maybe that's just because he was away from the cameras for a few seconds and was working up to doing the big smile and charm thing that followed with interviews with the press.   

Once we were seated we watched footage on the making of the film (although you couldn't really hear what was being said due to the noise in the cinema), and they had live footage of people arriving (some of the other Rolling Stones, amongst others) and the line-up to meet Prince Charles. This all provided a great build up to the film.  

Anyway, on to the film.  We thoroughly enjoyed Enigma.  The film is beautifully shot, the 40s are represented meticulously in terms of the sets, the costumes, cars etc.  The film is long, but it moves along at a nice pace and although you have to concentrate or you might miss key parts it isn't difficult because the acting is terribly good. 

I don't think any of the cast puts in a weak performance, nor do I think they bogged the film down with overly-theatrical performances as has been suggested.  Dougray, Jeremy Northam and Kate Winslet in particular are excellent, as you would expect.

The guys who play the other code-breakers are also brilliant - convincing math(s) geeks, and quite charming!  Dougray looks terrible as Tom Jericho, very convincing as a man who has had a breakdown.  You can see how he fell so heavily for Claire - it just makes sense him being enchanted by this beautiful woman, he can't believe his luck.  His accent is pretty good too (praise indeed since I come from the north of England).  My only slightly negative remark is that I thought Tom's relationship with Hester could have been built up a bit more, they seem to go from one or two scenes calling each other "Miss Wallace" and "Mr. Jericho" to being in love in almost one step. 

The film certainly deserves recognition so I hope it achieves success (however that is measured).  Enigma really does have shades of the older classics to which it has been compared - it is a very classy and intelligent film. 

Before the film started Mick Jagger thanked the various financiers and distributors, he mentioned that he hoped one of the companies would be helping with European distribution, so lets hope this means Enigma gets out to the wider public sooner rather than later.

- Thanks to "UK Fan" for sharing her experience!