The Imitation Game

A drama tailor made for academics not intended to outrage or offend, but simply to tell us in the riveting story about part of the revealed mosaic of conspiracy that stood behind the victory of the Allies in the Second World War. Alan Turing is something like an idol in my field of study and maybe because I know a little more than made it into the movie, I can’t give it the highest rating. Even though this is a great and riveting picture. The finale is rather less interesting because it doesn’t show this star’s fall in full and reduces it to text explanations (what happened to Snow White and the cyanide apple?), it provokes some sad head shaking over the treatment of homosexuals in post-war Old England. I like the way the director Morten Tyldum, who I haven’t come across before, offers a slightly more in-depth insight into this lonely eccentric who only the wonderfully cute Keira Knightley could civilize. Cumberbatch is great, again in a slightly differently, giving a pleasant performance of an unpleasant... heh Dr. Spock of last century. We barely learn anything about the code and how it all worked. I suppose that’s what Wikipedia is for. That bothered me a bit. But as a drama about a strange person, The Imitation Game works wonderfully, due also to Desplat’s wonderful music (two nominations this year for the golden baldy speaks for itself). (16/01/2015)

Although the story is shot according to a mostly traditional (not to be confused with average) biopic template, thanks to the fantastic actors, great production design, direction, music by Alexandre Desplat and atmosphere, it is easy to forgive a lot of things. The supremely convincing Benedict Cumberbatch should have been given some sort of patent for his oddball roles by now, as great as he is, but the charismatic Mark Strong and Charles Dance don't stay in his shadow and Keira Knightley is more than a mere decoration. It was successful. (31/01/2015)

Valkyrie, but for the ladies. A less dramatic and slower film, yet still comprehensible than A Beautiful Mind, for instance. Benedict Cumberbatch excels and the is script's playful, precise, and interesting. It only becomes pathetic and descends into sentimentality when Keira Knightley starts flirting. (12/02/2015)

An impressive piece of craftsmanship where weaknesses are hard to find. But that's probably because in a biopic of this calibre that from the beginning aspire to get golden statuettes, mistakes are not allowed. The film is admittedly a very cold, emotionally detached account of a significant period in the life of its equally cold, brilliant hero, who comes across as overly mechanical thanks to the performance of master Cumberbatch, who goes through the entire story with the unchanging expression of a "mathematical nerd", but at the same time it’s an extremely honest, sympathetically old-fashioned genre film that fulfils almost all the prescribed cinematic formulas, including that of Cumberbatch's speech, for there is probably no more believable portrayal of a mathematical nerd. But praise is also due to Alexandre Desplat, the set and costume designers, and especially Mr Turing himself, whose greatness, thanks to this film, I can no longer doubt. 80% (15/02/2015)

Turing's Pure Soul that pays special attention to the (least) interesting aspects of his destinies (and when it pays special attention it is done in the style of cliché advertising like "when he goes, we also go" or "hurray" etc.) to sideline the most important and disproportionately interesting events which is strange. As a result, Cumberbatch's performance is particularly interesting. Not so much the performance itself (though this too) as in the context of his crucial roles, when after having performed characters of Hawking, Sherlock and Assange, this is already the fourth time when he plays similar role on paper, the archetype of the role of a "odd duck" genius, without in any way (or just a gesture) repeat the same performance over and over again. (30/01/2015)