Review - The Imitation Game

This film is not a just a film with great performances - it is the great film overall. Thrilling, suspenseful, entertaining - what else you wish?

The Weinstein Company's this year Oscar juggernaut is surprisingly is not a mere Oscar bait, but it is actually a very good film. The Imitation Game, directed by Morten Tyldum (known for BAFTA-nominated Headhunters) is an entertaining, highly involving film which is supported by all-round great acting and well-balanced script. 

Alan Turing, known for his great contribution to computers and cryptography, played by Benedict Cumberbach. The film primarily focuses on Turing's endeavor to crack Nazi's enigma code. During the World War 2, Nazi Germany was using a highly advanced encryption for their radio messages, generated by a curious electro-mechanical machine, called Enigma. Allies got hold of this machine, but were not able to decrypt any of the signals because the machine had millions of settings and Germans changed their decryption setting everyday. So obviously British military and MI6 required code-breakers and mathematicians for this secret task - to break the enigma. Turing, having a respectable résumé, takes the job, along with his team consisting of a bunch of men and a woman too.

This woman, Joane Clarke, played wonderfully by Keira Knightley, develops an immediate fondness for Turing. Turing is rather an arrogant narcissist on surface. The film accounts this to his tormented childhood - his peculiar interests and school bullying. Turing retreated more and more into this personal shell and became more inaccessible. All of the other colleagues on the mission dislike him but only Joane understood Turing and his emotions. 

Over the less than two hours of the film's runtime, the film provides layered characterization for most of its characters - not only Turing, but also Joane, mission partners Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode),
John Cairncross (Allen Leech) and MI6 head Stewart Menzies (Mark Strong). The script is very well written - the storyline never becomes stretched or dull in its entire length, which usually is the case with biopics.

Cumberbatch gives an extra-ordinary performance here - it is restrained and never showy. It is always easy to act loud and shout to make an impression, but subtle performances are very hard to pull off. And Cumberbatch did it with a great conviction. His scene with Keira near the end are heartbreaking - "I don't want to be alone." Keira Knightley provides an effective support to Cumberbatch performance, which actually defines the supporting actor role.

Alexandre Desplat's music has worked amazingly well onscreen. His scores always underlines a given scene and are never obtrusive, and yet you always hum his themes when you step outside the theater. He never ceases to amaze me with his work, such a large body of work. The production design is also worth a mention, the WWII era is well depicted along with all the machines and war-era London.

The homosexual element is underplayed, but is not written off. In fact, the injustice done to a brilliant man who helped saving thousand of lives is the integral theme of this film. The Imitation Game is amongst this year's best. Cumberbatch brings his heart and soul to his very fine film.

4/5