Enemy at the Gates

Featuring three miscast stars and a pedestrian script, this uninspiring drama focuses on the battle for Stalingrad, one of the turning points of the Second World War. According to director Jean-Jacques Annaud's version of events, the lengthy conflict (summer 1942 to February 1943) boiled down to a sniper duel between legendary Russian shepherd Vassily Zaitsev (Jude Law) and German nobleman Major König (Ed Harris). Unfortunately, Annaud dilutes the psychological aspects of their confrontation and the four suspenseful sniper sequences with a dramatically undernourished romantic subplot involving Rachel Weisz. Saddled with a spectacularly awful script and a director clearly more concerned with epic visuals, Law, Weisz and Joseph Fiennes (as Soviet propaganda genius Danilov) fail to rise to the occasion, a central flaw magnified when acting heavyweight Harris takes command of the screen. Great to look at, but torture to listen to, Annaud's overlong history lesson is a prime example of how not to make a war movie.