Good, but the HUMAN ELEMENT IS WEAK and unconvincing

Rating: 7/10 (19 March 2001)

Saw "Enemy at the Gates". Huge production and realistic, and it's well worth seeing. But there are some flaws, and a Khruschev who looks way too old for 1942 isn't a major one (Bob Hoskins is great in the role, though).
This very good film has two significant flaws, and the intrusive cockney English accents, especially of Jude Law, is one. It is most distracting. It was very foolish of the director to permit this, or maybe it was his dumb idea. Russians speaking with cockney accents! Jeez. Maybe it'll go over well in the East End of London.
The other flaw is that one cannot get emotionally involved with any character, or at least I did not. I didn't care about the love story either. Also, the winner of the sniper duel used trickery courtesy of the suicide of his cohort, and I didn't care much for that either. (No names! No spoilers!).
Having read the book long ago I know the denouement of that duel, but even those who didn't know may not get emotionally involved in the human element of the film. Perhaps it had something to do with both sides being despicable totalitarian regimes. I'm supposed to really care that one minor cog of a murderous despotism run by a madman killed a minor cog of a different murderous despotism run by a second madman? Also, somehow the acting didn't do the job nor transmit the right emotion, vulnerability, and desperation.

The attempts to humanize, and then demonize, Major Koenig towards the end of the film seemed forced and didn't work for me. Ed Harris is a fine actor, but even his character was not fully realized and somewhat two-dimensional.
But nonetheless, a very good film, but it won't be entering my DVD collection unless I see it in the "under $14" bin.
Go see it, but you may not come away really empathetic with the characters.