Decent movie, but there were few surprises.

Rating: 7/10 (31 March 2001)

"Enemy at the Gates" was certainly worth seeing, but I was disappointed to find that with a couple of exceptions, it was mostly a pretty standard war movie. Like another reviewer here, the opening scene on the banks of the Volga nearly had me in tears questioning what could possibly motivate human beings to hurl so much misery at one another. After the opening, though, the movie isn't particularly gut-wrenching. The appearance of Hoskins' character was a surprise to me. I had previously seen that Hoskins would be in the movie, but I didn't know who he'd be playing or that Nikita Khruschev would be a part of this story. I must say that the use of English didn't bother me in the least, nor was I concerned that the actors used their own accents. I very much prefer that to having them try to sound like a Russian speaking English, as a friend of mine put it. Someone commented that Jude Law's accent sounded upper-crust, but it struck me as sounding more like a common or rural British accent, slightly different than what he normally employs. I also agree with some other reviewers that it was a nice change to see a World War II movie told from a non-American perspective. The only other examples that I can think of off the top of my head are "Das Boot" and "Grave of the Fireflies." I enjoyed "Enemy" overall and I'm glad I saw it, but if you don't get around to catching it, don't lose sleep over it.