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Read MoreWWII codebreaker film is Oscar material
The Imitation Game: There’s Nothing Fake about It
by Sandra Olmsted
Norwegian director Morten Tyldum makes his English language debut with The Imitation Game, the true story of Alan Turing (played smashingly by Benedict Cumberbatch), the man who broke the German code during WWII and created an early version of a computer in the process. Also the tragic story of Turing’s demise because he was gay, and under the Victorian-era Labouchere Amendment (1885-1967), being gay was illegal.
Those caught participating in homosexual activities could be arrested, charged with gross indecency, and after WWII, forced, as Turing was, to take hormones to chemically castrate them. Told in flashback while Turing describe his wartime activities to suspicious police Detective Robert Nock (Rory Kinnear) in 1952, the end of Turing’s life provides a good frame for Tyldum’s compelling film. Turing, a genius with a knack for games and codes even as a child, obviously suffers from a form of Asperger’s and finds it difficult to connect with others. As a result, he also appears insufferable and downright snotty, and he isn’t well liked by most people.
The story of his one friend from school, Christopher (Jack Bannon), is told in flashbacks also; fortunately, Tyldum and screenwriter Graham Moore keep the war, school days, and the arrest time periods neatly separated and the story easy to follow. Once at the Bletchley Park facility and working on breaking the code, Tyldum reveals enough historical information to establish the futility of Turing and the other recruit’s efforts to break a code that changes every night at midnight and that has millions and million of random combinations. While Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode), the chess champ put in charge, sticks to a straight forward approach to breaking the Enigma code, Turing insists that only a machine can break a machine-generated code and builds a calculating machine that can run all the combinations.
Turing’s unpopularity with his coworkers and his boss Commander Denniston (Charles Dance) leads to him being fired, but Turing writes directly to Winston Churchill, who puts Turing in charge and provides the funding to continue his work. Turing also recruits a number of men via a puzzle published in the newspaper, and Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), who proves she’s as good as, if not better than, the men at cracking code. Clarke also helps socialize Turing and helps him make friends with the other code breakers; eventually, Turing and Clarke plan to marry. Although the team of code breakers face being fired because of lack of results, they eventually get a lucky break. But what will happen if the Germans figure out their code is broken? Hard choices lie ahead. Turing reveals it all to Detective Nock, but why?
The Imitation Game has multiple accolades from many film festivals and from critics groups; consequently, the film is poised to get and deserves multiple Oscar nominations at the very least. The taut, moody images of Spanish cinematographer Oscar Faura’s lens, the excellent details of the created time periods and naturalistic look of production designer Maria Djurkovic’s contribution, and the piano and strings of Alexandre Desplat’s score all flesh out Tyldum’s light-touch direction, Moore’s announced script, and exception performances by the entire cast, especially Cumberbatch.
A release of The Weinstein Company, The Imitation Game, is rated PG-13 for some sexual references, mature thematic material and historical smoking and runs 114 minutes. Opens in theaters Christmas Day and is worth seeing!
