The Imitation Game

Benedict Cumberbatch really does seem to have Midas touch at the moment. Who else could get teenage girls to discuss homophobic attitudes during the forties and the ill treatment of a maths wizard that was also a war hero. Not many but Cumberbatch has and he does it with a performance that will knock your socks off.

The Imitation Game tells of the the race against time by Alan Turing and his team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. The motley group of scholars, mathematicians, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers had a powerful ally in Prime Minister Winston Churchill who authorized the provision of any resource they required. The film spans the key periods of Turing's life: his unhappy teenage years at boarding school; the triumph of his secret wartime work on the revolutionary electro-mechanical bombe that was capable of breaking 3,000 Enigma-generated naval codes a day; and the tragedy of his post-war decline following his conviction for gross indecency, a now-outdated criminal offence stemming from his admission of maintaining a homosexual relationship.

Cumberbatch excels at playing the outsider and he is terrific in this portrayal of Turing a brilliant eccentric mathematician who is even described by his mother as an odd fish. The talk of Oscar nods for this film are very worthy and not just for Cumberbatch. The film is littered with excellent performances, you might expect these from Kiera Knightly Mathew Goode and Mark Strong as well as the rest of the cast but special mention must go the young supporting actors playing the schoolboy Turing and his close friend Christopher, they are fantastic and their performances are particular touching. The direction by Morten Tyldum gives the film an energetic pace and the Graham Moore script mixes top drama with pathos and humor. Both will be disappointed if they are not in there with Oscar nominations.

Hopefully you’ll can break the code hidden in this review and work it out that this is one of the must see films of the year.