The Imitation Game

An unenthusiastic 70%. The Imitation Game is the kind of film that every Oscar season must have, a well-executed real-life story about someone exceptional. This time we have Alan Turing, genius mathematician, rather asocial weirdo, and gay. Rather than the building of Turing’s machine and the breaking of the Enigma code, I was captivated by the moral dilemma related to the impossibility to use the broken code to save lives (they could have dedicated more time to that) and the way society treated a hero who happened to be different. Overall, it’s a good film, but I liked Tyldum’s previous thriller, Headhunters, a lot more. (14/01/2015)

A drama tailor made for academics not intended to outrage or offend, but simply to tell us in the riveting story about part of the revealed mosaic of conspiracy that stood behind the victory of the Allies in the Second World War. Alan Turing is something like an idol in my field of study and maybe because I know a little more than made it into the movie, I can’t give it the highest rating. Even though this is a great and riveting picture. The finale is rather less interesting because it doesn’t show this star’s fall in full and reduces it to text explanations (what happened to Snow White and the cyanide apple?), it provokes some sad head shaking over the treatment of homosexuals in post-war Old England. I like the way the director Morten Tyldum, who I haven’t come across before, offers a slightly more in-depth insight into this lonely eccentric who only the wonderfully cute Keira Knightley could civilize. Cumberbatch is great, again in a slightly differently, giving a pleasant performance of an unpleasant... heh Dr. Spock of last century. We barely learn anything about the code and how it all worked. I suppose that’s what Wikipedia is for. That bothered me a bit. But as a drama about a strange person, The Imitation Game works wonderfully, due also to Desplat’s wonderful music (two nominations this year for the golden baldy speaks for itself). (16/01/2015)

For this movie to be perfect, it would have to be less literal and with less Hollywood-like straightforward emotions (A Beautiful Mind), but with more British nobility and reason (Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy). If the main character were black, it would be the most formulaic movie with Academy Award ambitions ever made. Benedict Cumberbatch is, however, excellent. (17/02/2015)

Although the story is shot according to a mostly traditional (not to be confused with average) biopic template, thanks to the fantastic actors, great production design, direction, music by Alexandre Desplat and atmosphere, it is easy to forgive a lot of things. The supremely convincing Benedict Cumberbatch should have been given some sort of patent for his oddball roles by now, as great as he is, but the charismatic Mark Strong and Charles Dance don't stay in his shadow and Keira Knightley is more than a mere decoration. It was successful. (01/02/2015)

An impressive piece of craftsmanship where weaknesses are hard to find. But that's probably because in a biopic of this calibre that from the beginning aspire to get golden statuettes, mistakes are not allowed. The film is admittedly a very cold, emotionally detached account of a significant period in the life of its equally cold, brilliant hero, who comes across as overly mechanical thanks to the performance of master Cumberbatch, who goes through the entire story with the unchanging expression of a "mathematical nerd", but at the same time it’s an extremely honest, sympathetically old-fashioned genre film that fulfils almost all the prescribed cinematic formulas, including that of Cumberbatch's speech, for there is probably no more believable portrayal of a mathematical nerd. But praise is also due to Alexandre Desplat, the set and costume designers, and especially Mr Turing himself, whose greatness, thanks to this film, I can no longer doubt. 80% (15/02/2015)