The Imitation Game

Hollywood Reporter

The Imitation Game works as a deep and exciting historical thriller, but it doesn't work nearly as well in regards to the other places it tries to go. The film, taking place in England during the depths of World War II, follows a team of geniuses trying to decipher a Nazi code. The code, referred to as "Enigma," is responsible for the Germans' orchestration of elaborate attacks against the Allies. Fearing his team will never be able to crack the code, British Commander Denniston (Tywin Lan… I mean Charles Dance) hires Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to change the game for the good guys.

Turing is strange. He's quirky, reserved, awkward, but brilliantly innovative and determined. Kind of like a more tame Sheldon Cooper, but with the same amount of sass. When he gains the approval of Denniston, he has half his team fired and replaces them with Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley, in an undeserved yet overdue second Oscar-nominated performance). Clarke, Turing, and the rest of the decryption team work tirelessly over several months to crack the code, knowing full well every day that goes by without success is a day that the Germans reset their code, causing their day's work to be wasted. But when there are hundreds of millions of possibilities of what the code could be, Turing knows they can only do so much until their inevitable demise. So he invents the world's first computer to even the playing field.

The film tries to grapple with a lot of topics - Turning's past, Turing's future, Turing's homosexuality, social issues, self-confidence, and more - but it only fully succeeds in tackling the tension at the time and the difficult dynamic between Turing and his colleagues and superiors. In short, the movie is successful at what it tries to be in its overarching approach - a cinematic thriller. The film bites off more than it can chew in its runtime, and while it's entertaining, immersive, and at times pulse-pounding, therese diversions are nothing but a distraction to the overall impact of the film when its so often unclearly jumps between timelines and shifts focus.

Was the film supposed to be something more than a thriller? It didn't come off as a biopic - the film took on too many subject for that to be the case. Was it supposed to be a commentary on gay rights? While that idea was present, it didn't come across that strong until the end of the film, at which point it felt extremely out of place. But even though the film as a whole was hampered by these incomplete attempts to address many subjects, its approach in doing so didn't completely rob the film of its praiseworthy areas. The thrills are still real and the acting - particularly by Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead - is spot-on.

Many were hailing The Imitation Game as the best British film of the year, yet the BAFTAs handed the award to The Theory of Everything (a choice I personally agree with). That doesn't mean that The Imitation Game should be overlooked, though. It may not thrive in every direction it tries to go, but the effort is present, and for the most part, the film does work.

Rating: 3.5/5