The Imitation Game
7/10
Well acted, slick very good production. Hard to see anything really wrong with the movie. The only thing that keeps it from being an excellent movie is that it is the Reader's Digest condensed version of Turing's life and achievements.
Turing's sexuality is dealt with, but off-handedly. I don't know if that's because that's how the man was or because the movie didn't want to focus on his sexuality.
Guess I'll have to read the book on that.
It barely scratches the surface of man and his work, so while it's not a shallow movie, it's just not as deep as the actors and the subject deserved.
I do, however understand why the movie makers didn't include expositions in an attempt to explain the calculations and math the codebreakers used. Lead actor Benedict Cumberbatch is quoted in some magazine as saying that whenever anyone in the production or acting team did ask for an explanation from those in the know, they would get a sigh from the mathematician, the reaction of someone who knows darn well he is going to lose his audience in a couple of minutes. And of course, the questioner did indeed get lost.
So they just omitted much of the math and how-tos, the audience is just told how smart the characters are, without seeing much of why they are. Keira Knightley's character has even less shown to indicate why she's even on the team.
Otherwise, flawless acting from everyone. Good period piece. Very touching. The plotline jumps back and forth a bit but it isn't hard to follow. As usual Cumberbatch in the lead role is much much better than the material he is working with. His award nominations are well-deserved.
