Review of The Imitation Game (2014) by Michael P — 14 Aug 2015

Based on a true story, The Imitation Game focuses on the life of brilliant mathematician Alan Turing, showing flashbacks of his early years, glimpses of his final years and concentrating on Turing's efforts to crack the enigma code in World War II, an endeavour that leads to the creation of a machine thought to be a precursor to modern day computers.

This film is quite an enjoyable experience, as Turing's quirky genius personality leads to social awkwardness that we like to see. Benedict Cumberbatch perfectly portrays the character with repressed desires while working on a solution to enigma that changes the world. Cumberbatch is not the only one who delivers a strong performance. Keira Knightley also delivers one of her best performances with great support from Matthew Goode, Charles Dance and Mark Strong. Although the film is light-hearted at times it never forgets to remind us the state of the rest of the world with real war footage spliced in.

The film manages to stay interesting throughout the sequences during World War II, while the team works tirelessly to crack the enigma. The many problems the team face before and even after the code is broken, keep us involved throughout the film. However, the flashbacks to Turing's early days in childhood and the detective in the 50s working on finding Turing's secrets did not add enough for me to be worthy of being in the film. During these scenes I just wanted them to go back to the 40s where the film is at its greatest. Only a final encounter between Turing and Keira Knightley's character Joan Clarke is a scene out of the war that had real impact.

The Imitation Game is a great film to watch and something that you could watch again unlike some other "based on a true story" films. A strong cast presents an interesting story that revolutionized the world with a subtle understory of suffering from past prejudices that may still be relevant. Unfortunately this film isn't out in Australia yet but when it is released you should definitely go see it. No doubt this film will be a contender during award season.