Movie Review: The Imitation Game (2014)

I wanted to watch this movie ever since I saw the trailer last year. I mean, Benedict Cumberbatch and the guy who played Tywin Lannister on one screen? C’mon! It had to be good! Unfortunately, in India it released just a week back so this review is pretty late. Anyway, let’s get to it…

The Imitation Game (2014)

Director: Morten Tyldum
Screenplay: Graham Moore
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode and Charles Dance

Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.

Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch, take a bow! From the very start of TIG he invites you in to listen to his story, the story of Alan Turing. According to Wikipedia, not only was Alan Turing a brilliant mathematician but also ‘…a British pioneering computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, mathematical biologist, and marathon and ultra distance runner’ (If that isn’t overachieving, I don’t know what is). He hypothesized so-called Turing machines, on which are based the computers we use today. The Imitation Game manages to characterize the brilliant mind of this man.

TIG is based on the life of Alan Turing, alternating between his past and his time spent  designing Christopher, his beloved machine. It is set in the time of WW2 when the Germans used Enigma, a virtually unbreakable encryption machine, to send top-secret messages. Unable to decode the intercepted messages, the Allies suffered heavy losses. Frustrated, they invite a group of mathematicians to Bletchley Park’s Government Code and Cypher School to help them decode Enigma. Leading the group is Turing, played flawlessly by Cumberbatch. He is aloof and a loner, not well-liked by his colleagues and superiors. He is shunned because of his eccentricities, branded mad, even a monster, and also falsely accused of being a Soviet spy and later prosecuted for homosexuality. ‘What do you think? Am I a man or machine?’ he asks, almost to himself, when he is being questioned by the police, trying to make sense of the inner turmoil.

In the flashbacks we are taken to his school days in Sherborne School in England. We catch glimpses of his life there: being bullied mercilessly by his fellow students, his blossoming ‘friendship’ with classmate Christopher Morcom, his introduction to codes and cryptography and finally his devastation on learning about the death of Christopher which drove him to become an atheist and dedicate his life’s work to his friend.

Everyone around him later manages to look past his strange personality and learns to get along with him. Together they design a machine, Christopher, that will help them to break not only Enigma, but any other code thrown its way. This machine laid the foundation for modern computation.
Turing gets engaged to his friend and colleague, Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) but it becomes obvious that she was his ‘beard’ (Google definition: a woman who accompanies a homosexual man as an escort to a social occasion, in order to help conceal his homosexuality) Later when Alan reveals to his fiancee that he is gay and tells her that they cannot stay engaged, she confesses that she always had her suspicions but cares about him either way. This is evident when she tells a friend ‘I know it’s not ordinary. But who ever loved ordinary?’
In the end, of course they manage to break Enigma. Experts say that cracking the code helped the Allies win WW2 and shorten it by two to four years, saving the world from colossal damages, both human and economic. Inspite of this outstanding success, it remained a government secret and what is even more shocking is that after Enigma, after all his contribution and achievements, Alan Turing was prosecuted for “indecent conduct” with a man (Homosexuality was criminal in the UK in those days). He pleaded guilty whereafter he was given two choices: prison or medical castration. Turing chose the latter and was forced to take estrogen injections which caused gynaecomastia (breast development in males) and rendered him impotent. Just days before his 42nd birthday, he was found dead due to cyanide poisoning, a speculated suicide but the real reason is unclear. He was given a posthumous royal pardon only in 2013!

Benedict Cumberbatch is an absolute delight to watch. His Golden-Globe nomination is well deserved! He plays Turing with a certain finesse that he seems to have mastered playing Sherlock Holmes. His portrayal of Turing is awkwardly endearing with just a touch of OCD and Asperger’s, almost Sheldon Cooper-ish. The movie opens with his narration. ‘Are you paying attention? Good. If you’re not listening carefully, you will miss things. Important things. I will not pause, I will not repeat myself, and you will not interrupt me.’ he says in a low growl. It grabs on to you and rarely lets your attention waver.
The relationship between Turing and the feminist Joan Clarke is portrayed with a compelling complexity and depth. While there is an obvious lack of the romantic element, they understand each other and share a companionship.
Another performance that catches your eye is of Charles Dance, as Commander Denniston, Turing’s superior at Bletchley Park, who exudes authority bordering on blatant arrogance; it reminds you of his role as the ruthless Tywin Lannister in A Game of Thrones.

The Imitation Game brings to life (and slightly dramatizes) Turing’s story. It is a must-watch for Cumberbatch’s acting and the beautiful script. It is inspiring and even shocking in places, reminding us that even the most unlikely people can change the world, much like Alan Turing himself.

So sorry for being MIA but exams… I was going to review Requiem for a Dream (currently I’m going through a Darren Aronofsky phase :p) but it left me a little depressed so I did The Imitation Game instead.

Also I learned something very interesting while writing this review: the difference between prosecuted and persecuted. It’s a common mistake to use them interchangeably. According to translegal.com: the term the prosecution refers to the group of lawyers in a trial representing the Government who try to prove that the accused is guilty of the crime. grammarist.com says: The main definitions of prosecute are (1) to initiate legal proceedings against, (2) to carry on or engage in, and (3) to pursue an undertaking to completion. Persecute means to oppress or harass, especially because of race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation.

Hoping to post more stuff soon. Thank you for the continuous encouragement. Thanks you for reading 🙂 Please leave a comment for feedback.