Review of The Imitation Game (2014) by Art S — 04 Oct 2015

I tend to think that any story could be cinematic -- it is all in the telling. Certainly the tale of genius Alan Turing and his invention of an early computer to crack the Nazis Enigma code has enough exciting elements to make a suspense film.

Add in the fact that Turing was gay and thus had secrets of his own to hide from a society and government that treated this fact as criminal and the tension would easily be increased (and a socio-political statement could be made).

So, what then, has happened to create this very middling film, full of heavy handed moments orchestrated by strings? Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightly are fine enough (although not exciting), so it is likely the script and the direction that are to blame.

Or the Weinsteins, tossing out Oscar bait for the bourgeois Academy voters and the masses they represent. If only it wasn't all a bit boring. We needed Lynne Ramsey or Ken Loach or even Stephen Frears (if we're staying mainstream), but we got Morten Tyldum (unknown to me).