The Imitation Game

A truly great film puts you through the full list of emotions, and The Imitation Game is one such film.  It's a powerful and complex, yet surprisingly understated film that left me feeling drained when it was over, but in the best way possible.  Of the many bio-dramas that are hitting the big screen this holiday season, this is easily the best one I've seen so far. (I still have a few left to watch.)

What makes this movie particularly fascinating is that up until a few years ago, the story it tells was classified and unknown.  It tells of a secret program the British government used during World War II to break the Nazi's "Enigma" code.  The code is what the Axis forces used to communicate with each other, and it was believed to be unbreakable.  It was up to a small group of mathematicians to crack the code, and hopefully give the British military a fighting chance in the war.  The leader of this group was a brilliant yet socially awkward man named Alan Turing.  In the film, Turing is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, giving what is easily his best film performance yet.  It was through Turing that we not only got the information that allowed us to win the war, but he also created a machine to help crack the Nazi code that today is considered an early version of the computer.

In telling Alan Turing's story, Norwegian director Morten Tyldum (making his English language debut) and screenwriter Graham Moore have successfully broken it down into three main segments set in different points in his life.  The film expertly jumps between these three points of time expertly, and in such a way that it is never confusing.  The main storyline obviously centers on Alan building the device that ultimately broke the Enigma code.  But, we also get some flashbacks to him as an awkward young man at an all boys school.  It's there that he struck up a relationship with a fellow student named Christopher, which started out as a close friendship, but ultimately grew to something that might be more, and might have even led to Turing's first love if fate had not gotten in the way.

Alan Turing's sexuality plays a deeper part to the story than you might initially expect.  It hangs over the central war storyline, as he becomes involved with a young woman named Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley).  She is a woman working on his team, and when it seems as if she is going to have to leave the project, he hastily decides to propose to her.  It's not that he does not have any feelings at all for her, as he cares for her greatly and has a tremendous amount of respect for her.  Maybe she senses something off about the whole thing too, but she goes along with it, at least for a while.  In the film's third and final storyline, it is the early 50s, and Turing is being questioned by a police officer after being picked up for "indecency" related to his sexual preference.  The way that the three storylines intersect with each other is brilliant, and allows us to get so much closer to the central figure than your standard bio-drama.

In fact, it's a cinematic miracle that The Imitation Game seems cohesive the way it is put together.  It could have easily felt fragmented, or that it was jumping around from one topic to the next.  And while there is a certain non-linear nature to the way it tackles its subject matter, it ultimately feels like these jumps to different time periods is telling one big story, rather than the film trying to tackle too much in a two hour time frame.  And even though this is a fast paced film, it never seems to be rushing.  We feel like we are getting an intimate look at a very complicated man who serves as the central subject.  Turing comes across as sympathetic and oddly endearing, even as his complete lack of social conduct isolates him from just about everyone except Joan Clarke, who is perhaps drawn in by how different and awkward he is.  He is faced with so many social challenges during the course of the film, we can't help but feel for him, and hope that he opens up to somebody eventually.

However, unlike the recent film about Stephen Hawking, The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game is just as interested in Turing's work as it is in his personal life.  We not only get to see the trials he went through in building his code-cracking device, but also the hard war-related choices he was forced to make after the machine became successful.  There's some great drama and acting on Cumberbatch's part as he is forced to fight his superiors to keep the project running when it looks like it's not going to provide any real results.  it is the mixture of human drama, and how we are able to relate to Alan, as well as the film's fascination with the science behind the work that makes this such a compelling film.  The quick pacing of the film also gives the movie an odd edge of your seat quality even when it's just a bunch of men working on an ancient computer.

As the film expands into wide release this weekend, it is clear that this is one of the must see films of this season, and easily one of the great films of 2014.  When it's over, it's guaranteed to leave you with a wide range of emotions.  But the most important one will be that giddy high you always feel when you've just watched a truly fantastic film.

See the movie times in your area or buy the DVD at Amazon.com!

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