BackFilm Review: The Imitation Game
A WWII spy thriller on the surface and an affecting love story at core
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Andrew Hodges’ book Alan Turing: The Enigma is about the British mathematical genius and code-breaker. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Turing in this World War II and post-World War set love story. While the film is indeed about the creation of the machine that could break codes and is believed to have saved the Allies two years on the war and millions of lives, essentially The Imitation Game is a story about lost loves, loneliness and secrets.
Graham Moore’s screenplay shifts back and forth, tracing the defining years in Alan Turing’s life: his formative years as a bullied loner in boarding school, his induction into the highly classified programme to break the code of the German encryption device Enigma, and life returning to a state of “normalcy" after the war. Turing is often accused by his co-workers of being humourless and grapples with everyday platitudes and banter. Jokes escape him and friendships elude him. He only seemed to have had one great friend, and one great love. As Turing says, “Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine."
As events move from the 1940s to 1950s Britain, director Morten Tyldum’s spotlight shifts to prejudices and immorality that corner Turing in such a way that his achievements pale. Cumberbatch infuses pathos and vulnerability into Turing evenly alongside arrogance and a fiercely logical point of view on life. His characterization is bolstered by a commendable performance by Keira Knightley as his colleague and confidante, Mark Strong as his MI6 boss and Charles Dance as Commander Denniston, head of the clandestine programme. Fans of Downton Abbey will recognize Matthew Goode and Allen Leech as Turing’s fellow code-breakers.
A spy thriller on the surface, a touching love story at core, The Imitation Game captures all things old world with equal measures of suspense and tenderness.
The Imitation Game released in theatres on Friday.
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