THE IMITATION GAME | Film Review

(Source: optimum)

Title: The Imitation Game
Director: Morten Tyldum 
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kiera Knightley, Matthew Goode
Originally Released: 2014
Running Time: 114 mins, 1 hr 54 mins 

Premise. In WW2, British mathematicians, with cryptanalyst Alan Turing central, band together to help crack the Nazi's enigma machine and decode enemy messages to help win the war.

Thoughts going in: I didn't expect too much, to be honest. Everyone I've heard mention it noted it was particularly good, and I do have a keen interest in Turing. However, I'm not the hugest Cumberbatch fan, but at least Matthew Goode was in it. So I went in rather indifferent.

Thoughts immediately after: Good, but that's about it. 

The Film: The film follows Alan Turing, one of the founding-fathers of the modern day computer, whom without we probably wouldn't have got to where we are so fast in terms of technology. Whilst this is mentioned in the standard "oh this is a historical film so we need to tie up any loose ends and explain people's lives" titles over the end scene, the brilliance of Turing whilst presented, fell slightly too short for my satisfaction. We're constantly flitting between time periods, from 1951 to 1939 to 1927. Each time period had a different tone, which was good in distinguishing between them, but the overall film was slow and missed the mark with narrative in my eyes. 

Whilst I value the story of Turing, I can't help but think the later part of his life was slightly omitted. The plot being fragmented meant that we didn't see enough of other time periods it was trying to present. The early part of Turing's life didn't provide anything apart from establish his sense of social awkwardness and his inspiration for cryptology, something that only needed to be hinted at. Turing's homosexuality isn't touched upon as much as I would have liked. 

It's a fair point that Turing was so much more than just his sexuality, he was a genius and a revolutionary in technology, but his sexuality played a huge part in his criminalisation and acted as a symbol for the injustices and homophobia the 1950s had upon the whole of society. The end of his life deserved to be presented so much more on screen, his struggle with what was happening around him and to his body needed to be documented, it holds so much responsibility for today in order of commemorating those who were criminalised. 

Cumberbatch is currently campaigning for pardons for people convicted for their homosexuality, and we needed to see this internal, external and devastating struggle it evidently had upon Turing. The film holding so much time on the war time meant we were mugged off from seeing the end of his profound life. Whilst one may argue the film wasn't about that, I still think it should have been. It should have been an allegory for how even the gifted minds, the celebrated silent heroes were persecuted for something they could not control. 

(Source: collider)

The Cast: The cast was good. Cumberbatch was fantastic at portraying the social awkward Turing. The characterisation was simply brilliant, and he probably deserves his nod from the Academy with his nomination for Best Actor. However, I wonder if Turing was so much like Cumberbatch's portrayal, from what I've heard, I don't think so. The rest of the cast were okay. Knightly's portrayal of Joan Clarke was a little pathetic, and I very much doubt a woman in the world of men back then was so passive, though I did like how she was a representation for how sexist society was back then, as well as homophobic. However, I wanted Joan to have more passion than was portrayed. Goode always catches my attention, and that's not just his handsome smile, his portrayal of Hugh was well played out, and his interactions with Cumberbatch were some of the more interesting interactions in the film. 

Final Thoughts: The Imitation Game is fantastic in its attempt, but fails in its narrative. The music is gorgeous, as expected by Alexandre Desplat. The cinematography is rich and quite reminiscent of the filter's one's mind places over the 1950s. My main problem lies with Turing's story, there's so much more that can be done. Whilst the film isn't one of gay rights, it's one of enigma and the story of how it was cracked, yet I do feel that the film ignored certain aspects that I feel deserve to be presented in cinema.

★★★½