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The Imitation Game
| Released |
14 November 2014 |
| Director |
Morten Tyldum |
Starring
|
Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, Mark Strong, Allen Leech, Tuppence Middleton, Rory Kinnear |
| Writer(s) |
Graham Moore |
Producer(s)
|
Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman |
| Origin |
United Kingdom, United States |
| Running Time |
144 minutes |
| Genre |
Biography, drama, thriller, war |
| Rating |
12A |
|
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A beautiful mind.
The Imitation Game is a lot like a bowl of porridge; wholesome and enjoyable to consume but you know, it’s still just porridge. The film tells the story of genius mathematician Alan Turing and his efforts to break the reputedly unbreakable Enigma code, used by the German army during World War 2 to disguise its strategic broadcasts. This is a story that a lot of people will be familiar with, if not from study, then from Michael Apted’s 2001 film Enigma or TV series’ The Bletchley Circle and Breaking the Code. Familiarity with the material won’t necessarily harm director Morten Tyldum’s version of events, aside from it being a handsomely shot period piece it also boasts unlikely box office draw Benedict Cumberbatch giving great toff as Alan Turing.
While the plot focuses on the tortuous process of breaking the Enigma code, Tyldum (the Norwegian director best known for Headhunters) picks away at Turing himself, attempting to understand the workings of the mind of a genius. To this end, we flashback to Turing’s formative years in boarding school - clever and sensitive, he was bullied relentlessly by his classmates. It’s a hackneyed tactic but to a certain extent it works; seeing the struggle and tragedy that made such a huge impact on him as a child helps us build empathy with a man who is difficult to warm to and is frequently unpleasant to his team of code-breakers, including the charismatic Matthew Goode.
In the central role, Cumberbatch is very effective, giving a performance that shows Turing as a man uncomfortable in his own skin, whose mind is so active that both the physical needs of his body and the necessity to interact with other human beings are sources of deep frustration to him. Surrounding Cumberbatch, there is an impressive supporting cast; aside from the always reliable Goode, there is a warm performance by Keira Knightley as lone female code-breaker Joan Clarke, as well as smaller roles for Mark Strong, Charles Dance and Rory Kinnear.
On the other side of the camera, Tyldum and his editor William Goldenberg do an excellent job in turning an intellectual process into a tense, effective drama that one could imagine curling up with on a rainy day with a cup of tea. That may sound like damning with faint praise but The Imitation Game is handsomely made, well acted and tells a story which should be more widely known.
-
Linda O’Brien |
