Review by JD, Red Carpet Report Producer
follow JD on Twitter at @Misadventurer
Benedict Cumberbatch is chilling as the “real-life” mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing who helped shorten Germany’s success during World War II with his abilities to crack the code of their Enigma machine.
You’ll never find, a brain lovelier than mine ~ (if Alan Turing were a fan of Lou Rawls)
Out of the two Benedict Cumberbatch-starring biopics about famous people using computers that changed the world, that came out this year, “The Imitation Game” is by far better than “The Fifth Estate.” Though neither have a very effective title, and both are spotty about the historical accuracy, “The Imitation Game” is more engaging. Told in time jumps with regrettable circumstance, it recounts Alan Turing’s time working for the British War effort to crack the German Enigma Machine. A period piece beautifully rendered, Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, a crossword puzzle enthusiast, whose theories are still admired by the greatest computer scientists of today. As he is approached by the Admiralty to join the cryptographers at Bletchley Park, Turing is socially awkward to a degree that today would be quantified on the autism spectrum. Fiercely intelligent, he refuses to play the games of his co-workers he and goes over event the commanding officer, played by Game of Thrones’s Charles Dance by writing a letter to Winston Churchill himself, saying why he’d be better in charge of the research to break Enigma than the current head, Hugh Alexander. His wish is granted, and Turing fires half the researchers and undergoes a search for people who think like he does, other crossword-puzzle enthusiasts. A rather strange trait to look for, but the puzzle solving, lateral thinking required for beating a puzzle in the timeframe allotted was just what Turing needed, and he has a meet cute with Keira Knightly’s “Joan Clarke” a woman who’s intellect rivals that of even Turing’s. The two teach each other, he gets her input on cypher possibilities and she shows him how to act like a real person, and when she is called away from their work by her parents, Turing offers to marry her, so she can remain on the project and he can hide his own homosexuality. The personal tragedy of “The Imitation Game” is not how many lives were still lost after Turing and Company broke the Enigma’s cypher, but how, after the war was over he was still placed on trial for homosexuality, and given the opportunity to either go to prison, or to be chemically castrated, and Turing went for the latter option, so he’d have an opportunity to continue his work, despite a malfunction in the implant in his hip that was supposed to slowly dose him with estrogen, that continued the dosage to the point that Turing’s final days were agony and he ended up taking his own life with cyanide.
Cumberbatch does an amazing job as Turing, and aside from a few seemingly unnecessary parts, this is great and very watchable film. The historical footage of Hitler and the Third Reich super imposed over Cumberbatch working in a montage felt heavy handed, and the Soviet mole hunt subplot detracted from the film though did not derail it. At the time of writing this, there are 5 Golden Globe nominations for the film and potentially some Oscar nods in the near future.
Check it out – in theaters 18 November 2014
Grade B+
About The Imitation Game
During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of ‘gross indecency’, an accusation that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality – little did officials know, they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing. Famously leading a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable codes of Germany’s World War II Enigma machine. An intense and haunting portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, THE IMITATION GAME follows a genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save millions of lives.
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode , Allen Leech, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, Rory Kinnear
Directed By: Morten Tyldum
http://theimitationgamemovie.com
https://www.facebook.com/TheImitationGameMovie
