Review of The Imitation Game (2014) by Matheus C — 21 Aug 2015

Ludicrous rubbish.

The fact that it is well-acted, well-shot and well-written, does nothing to disguise that this film is an absolute work of fiction - anyone even remotely familiar with Turing and the war's history will know for a fact that the majority of plot points, characters and general themes portrayed in the film never actually occurred.

It may make for interesting viewing, but it does a disservice not only to Turing, who was only a little like the character portrayed in the film, but also to the other highly-involved members of the Bletchly team who, far from being forcibly opposed to Turing's machine, actually were fully involved - to the extent that the letter delivered to Churchill was signed not by Turing but by the entire team. It is ridiculous to suggest, even in fiction, that the bulk of the code-breaking effort came from one man - or even a man and a female counterpart.

Other points of contention:

* Alan was never close to being fired in the manner portrayed in the film.

* The prolific antagonism towards Turing portrayed was non-existent. While there was antagonism, it was between many different members of the team.

* The Bombe did not take the extremely long decoding time portrayed in the film.

* The Colonel was not highly antagonistic towards Turing, he was merely a little incompetent and unforceful in terms of requesting support from higher up, which is why the team bypassed him to go straight to Churchill with their request for support.

Turing was a genuis, and I do like Cumberbatch's acting and portrayal, but there is so much wrong with this film - it has never, for example, been settled that Turing's death was a suicide - the director seems to make a number of assumptions in this regard, as his interviews show.

In short, author of the script took the key points of Alan Turing's life and the Bletchly project, altered them significant, then built a movie out of them; failing both at historical recognition, and personal recognition.

The film is only redeemed through it's strong message of tolerance, charismatic acting from both child and adult actors, and profoundly moving musical score.