The Imitation Game

Craig Mathieson started his review by describing, “Benedict Cumberbatch is to aloof geniuses as John Wayne was to stoic cowboys: numero uno.” Having already given us “Sherlock” on BBC and Australian hacker-turned activist Julian Assange in “The Fifth Estate,” Benedict Cumberbatch is now in “The Imitation Game,” released in 2014, as Alan Turing, the Cambridge mathematician who played a central role in winning World War II and inventing the computer, yet lived in secrecy before committing suicide in 1954 at the age of 41.

Morten Tyldum’s biographical film is a series of interwoven mysteries. The first is whether Turing can solve “the most difficult problem in the world:” breaking the daily code made by Nazi Germany’s Enigma machine (put 18 zeroes after 159 and you have the number of possible solutions). Others include whether he can interpret people he keeps meeting, and navigate his homosexuality.

Taking place in 1951, where a burglary at his Manchester apartment brings a curious police detective, played by Rory Kinnear, into his life, showing how Turing’s orientation led to an opinion (homosexuality was illegal then), which led up to his death. Turing barely acknowledges being gay, and neither does the film. Mathieson noted, “It would have made a fascinating element, if only because Cumberbatch is so convincing as a brilliant, obsessive loner that it would have been fascinating to watch him add desire and physical intimacy to his portrayal.”

Mathieson continued, “That said, the movie makes the cloistered world of Bletchley Park, the country estate where Britain's cryptanalysts worked during WWII, a place of gripping drama.” Turing fights with the building’s no-nonsense naval commander Denniston (Charles Dance) and his suave team leader Hugh (Matthew Goode), and his only supporter in building a machine to crack Enigma is a fellow outsider, a brilliant woman named Joan Clarke (Kiera Knightley) who must act as a secretary.

Mathieson compared, “There are wry exchanges in Turing's social mystification, but you may also be reminded of Jim Parsons' Sheldon from television's The Big Bang Theory.” “The Imitation Game” goes on a fine line in making the familiar effective, also reflecting “A Beautiful Mind” at parts.

Mathieson said, “Tyldum's last (Norwegian) film, 2011's Headhunters, drew black humour from a superiority complex, but here he reaches for the stirring, aided immeasurably by Cumberbatch's exacting performance.” However, he especially doesn’t rest on victory: cracking the code simply means allowing enough Allied soldiers to die so that the enemy doesn’t suspect anything. That’s the tragedy that lights the film: no solution is ever perfectly complete.

This was a film that I didn’t expect to make such a turn the way it did. When everything was revealed, I was in shock, but that was because I never suspected the reveal of Turing’s orientation. I didn’t know anything about him, but this film really educated me on his life. However, this is still a good movie that I think everyone should check out. See it on Netflix because it is currently streaming on there. You will love it, I promise.

Alright, we have reached the end of “Pride Month.” I hope all of you enjoyed this and stay tuned next month to see what I will review next.