The Imitation Game
3.5/4
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightly, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, Allen Leech
Rated PG-13 for Some Sexual References, Mature Thematic Material and Historical Smoking
There are so many movies and books about the battles of World War II that it's easy to forget that there were things happening behind the scenes. There are plenty of movies like "Saving Private Ryan," "The Longest Day," and "The Thin Red Line" and few like "Black Book," "Atonement" and "Casablanca." That's a shame, because done right, they can be just as riveting.
"The Imitation Game" is not the first film do deal with the Enigma machine, a code-breaker that turned the tide of the war against Nazi Germany. It was the driving force of the "U-571"'s plot (although it was almost a macguffin in that film) and the creatively titled "Enigma," a 2001 thriller starring Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet, which I haven't seen. "The Imitation Game" is the latest film to look at the Enigma machine, and considering its importance to world history, it likely won't be the last.
More specifically, "The Imitation Game" is a biopic (as Oscar-bait movies tend to be) of Alan Turning (Turning), the Enigma's creator. He's played extraordinarily well by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is deservedly getting Oscar buzz for his portrayal; a nomination is a certainty, and a win isn't out of the question. Turning is your average uber-geek that turns up in movies like this: intellectually superior but socially awkward to the point of being unlikable (I kept thinking he had a severe case of Asperger's Syndrome). His co-workers can't stand him until a lovely girl named Joan (Knightly) shows him the ropes.
The bulk of the film takes place during World War II. The British have captured the Enigma code machine via a double agent, although that's the easy part. The hard part is cracking it. There are a trillion different combinations, and the code is changed daily. Commander Deniston (Dance) and his superior, MI-6 operative Steward Menzies (Mark Strong) have assembled a team of brilliant mathematicians to crack it. These include Hugh Alexander (Goode) and John Cairncross (Leech), among others. Also a part of the group is Turning, although he doesn't socialize with them. They're trying to crack the code the old-fashioned way, but he believes that it takes one to know one, so he's inventing a device that will break it down and guess what is coming next.
That takes up the majority of the film. The film is built upon a police interrogation where Turning tells a police detective (Kinnear) his story. This is the film's biggest problem; while presenting the majority of the film as a flashback works (although there's little misty-eyed nostalgia to be found in its presentation), having him tell a police detective ten years after it occurred does not because the whole operation wasn't de-classifed until a half century later, and spilling the beans to a man accusing him of gross indecency (Turning was a homosexual) would have gotten him shot rather than two years in prison or, as Turning chose, chemical castration. Also included is a brief examination of young Turning (Alex Lawthor, who, while not a dead ringer for Cumberbatch, makes it easy to believe that he grew up to be the same Turning we spend the majority of the film with) and Christopher Morcom (Jack Bannon).
Cumberbatch is terrific, but he's ably supported by the always wonderful Keira Knightly. As Joan, Knightly plays the only other person other than Christopher that understood him. She knows he's not normal, but she also knows that she's not either. More importantly, she accepts him for who he is. Matthew Goode is terrific as well, although his role is relatively unimportant for someone who has made at least a minor name for himself (he played Ozymandias in "Watchmen," one of the leads in "Stoker," and should have gotten an Oscar nomination at the very least for his performance in "Match Point"). "Game of Thrones" mainstay Charles Dance and British villain-on-speed-dial Mark Strong have small but important roles.
The film was directed by Morten Tyldum, who directed the Swedish hit "Headhunters," a foreign film that impressed everyone but me. But the results speak for themselves. First-time screenwriter Graham Moore has written a script (based on the book by Andrew Hodges) that captures the complexities of the story and its central character with little confusion. While trying to explain how the Enigma machine and its counterpart (which Turning dubbed "Christopher") work would have turned many audience members off, a brief explanation would have helped things. Worth mentioning is the strategies that they used to keep the fact that they cracked the Enigma a secret, and the heavy cost that they paid for it. This material lends more weight and gravitas to the production.
"The Imitation Game" makes no secret of its outrage over what happened to Turning. For someone who had done so much for the Allies and gave birth to the computer, arresting him for being gay and forcing him to go to prison or undergo chemical castration was reprehensible. Tyldum makes sure that we know it (no doubt that this aspect of the film appealed to Cumberbatch, who is a staunch and outspoken supporter of gay rights). Turning's fate didn't bring a tear to my eye, but then again that rarely happens to me in movies. Still, this is one of the best films of the year.
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightly, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, Allen Leech
Rated PG-13 for Some Sexual References, Mature Thematic Material and Historical Smoking
There are so many movies and books about the battles of World War II that it's easy to forget that there were things happening behind the scenes. There are plenty of movies like "Saving Private Ryan," "The Longest Day," and "The Thin Red Line" and few like "Black Book," "Atonement" and "Casablanca." That's a shame, because done right, they can be just as riveting.
"The Imitation Game" is not the first film do deal with the Enigma machine, a code-breaker that turned the tide of the war against Nazi Germany. It was the driving force of the "U-571"'s plot (although it was almost a macguffin in that film) and the creatively titled "Enigma," a 2001 thriller starring Dougray Scott and Kate Winslet, which I haven't seen. "The Imitation Game" is the latest film to look at the Enigma machine, and considering its importance to world history, it likely won't be the last.
More specifically, "The Imitation Game" is a biopic (as Oscar-bait movies tend to be) of Alan Turning (Turning), the Enigma's creator. He's played extraordinarily well by Benedict Cumberbatch, who is deservedly getting Oscar buzz for his portrayal; a nomination is a certainty, and a win isn't out of the question. Turning is your average uber-geek that turns up in movies like this: intellectually superior but socially awkward to the point of being unlikable (I kept thinking he had a severe case of Asperger's Syndrome). His co-workers can't stand him until a lovely girl named Joan (Knightly) shows him the ropes.
The bulk of the film takes place during World War II. The British have captured the Enigma code machine via a double agent, although that's the easy part. The hard part is cracking it. There are a trillion different combinations, and the code is changed daily. Commander Deniston (Dance) and his superior, MI-6 operative Steward Menzies (Mark Strong) have assembled a team of brilliant mathematicians to crack it. These include Hugh Alexander (Goode) and John Cairncross (Leech), among others. Also a part of the group is Turning, although he doesn't socialize with them. They're trying to crack the code the old-fashioned way, but he believes that it takes one to know one, so he's inventing a device that will break it down and guess what is coming next.
That takes up the majority of the film. The film is built upon a police interrogation where Turning tells a police detective (Kinnear) his story. This is the film's biggest problem; while presenting the majority of the film as a flashback works (although there's little misty-eyed nostalgia to be found in its presentation), having him tell a police detective ten years after it occurred does not because the whole operation wasn't de-classifed until a half century later, and spilling the beans to a man accusing him of gross indecency (Turning was a homosexual) would have gotten him shot rather than two years in prison or, as Turning chose, chemical castration. Also included is a brief examination of young Turning (Alex Lawthor, who, while not a dead ringer for Cumberbatch, makes it easy to believe that he grew up to be the same Turning we spend the majority of the film with) and Christopher Morcom (Jack Bannon).
Cumberbatch is terrific, but he's ably supported by the always wonderful Keira Knightly. As Joan, Knightly plays the only other person other than Christopher that understood him. She knows he's not normal, but she also knows that she's not either. More importantly, she accepts him for who he is. Matthew Goode is terrific as well, although his role is relatively unimportant for someone who has made at least a minor name for himself (he played Ozymandias in "Watchmen," one of the leads in "Stoker," and should have gotten an Oscar nomination at the very least for his performance in "Match Point"). "Game of Thrones" mainstay Charles Dance and British villain-on-speed-dial Mark Strong have small but important roles.
The film was directed by Morten Tyldum, who directed the Swedish hit "Headhunters," a foreign film that impressed everyone but me. But the results speak for themselves. First-time screenwriter Graham Moore has written a script (based on the book by Andrew Hodges) that captures the complexities of the story and its central character with little confusion. While trying to explain how the Enigma machine and its counterpart (which Turning dubbed "Christopher") work would have turned many audience members off, a brief explanation would have helped things. Worth mentioning is the strategies that they used to keep the fact that they cracked the Enigma a secret, and the heavy cost that they paid for it. This material lends more weight and gravitas to the production.
"The Imitation Game" makes no secret of its outrage over what happened to Turning. For someone who had done so much for the Allies and gave birth to the computer, arresting him for being gay and forcing him to go to prison or undergo chemical castration was reprehensible. Tyldum makes sure that we know it (no doubt that this aspect of the film appealed to Cumberbatch, who is a staunch and outspoken supporter of gay rights). Turning's fate didn't bring a tear to my eye, but then again that rarely happens to me in movies. Still, this is one of the best films of the year.
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