Enemy at the Gates (2001)

Annaud and cinematographer Robert Fraisse (who also shot Tibet) take great pains with their panoramic, meticulously plotted combat scenes, including an opening sequence with a familiar feel, in which terrified Red conscripts are mowed down as they enter Stalingrad. But the greatest pains are taken over lighting the gold-flecked eyes of Law, the burning blue peepers of Harris and, for good measure, the chocolatey brown orbs of Joseph Fiennes, cast in the prop role of Danilov, a political officer in unheroic wire-rimmed glasses.

Without Danilov, there'd be no movie-style competition for Tania's affections. Without him, there'd also be no efficient way to establish Zaitsev's reputation. ''What we need are heroes,'' Danilov tells then general Nikita Khrushchev (Bob Hoskins with nifty prosthetic makeup), then goes about promoting the modest country boy through the newspaper articles he writes. (The intellectually snobby, politically active schemer and Khrushchev yes-man, who the script quite randomly and quite specifically points out as Jewish, may not handle a big gun, but he's got a mighty pen.)

Fiennes is done no great service by being handed such an all-purpose mop of a character with which to clean up such inconvenient odds and ends as, say, politics and religion, and he acquits himself, almost as well as his brother Ralph did spanning the history of Nazism and Communism last year in Sunshine. Harris is handed no prize in Major Konig, either, since most of his evil involves sitting gracefully silent in a wardrobe of precisely cut jackets, waiting for his prey to appear. (As for Weisz, her big reward is a sex scene cunningly obscured by grime and raggedy blankets.)

The one valuable prize for audiences in this war-pic Cracker Jack box is Jude Law. Once again the talented Mr. Law makes more of a role than most movies know what to do with. (The Talented Mr. Ripley rose to his occasion.) And in that regard, at least, the financiers of Enemy at the Gates are right: International audiences may not want to hear too much about Nazis, but nobody is above the Law.