24 Dec 2014 9:32 PM PT
Warning: May contain spoilers!
Allen Leech, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kiera Knightley, Matthew Beard, Matthew Goode (L-R) in ‘The Imitation Game’ Photo: theimitationgame.com
We had the good fortune to get a private screening tonight before the official opening tomorrow of ‘The Imitation Game’ in our local area. It is everything it promised to be… superb cast with Oscar-worthy acting, a moving story; an important historical piece, with an important message.
The premise of the story is based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain’s top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. The twist in the story is that Turing is a homosexual man, which was considered illegal in that era. The man (Turing) full of secrets finally outed himself after a “sketchy” arrest was made a few years following the end of the war.
The Imitation Game stars Benedict Cumberbatch who gave a brilliant performance as Alan Turing, supported by an amazing troupe of actors. Matthew Goode plays the brilliant, dashing and charming Hugh Alexander who gives Turing grief for a good part of the film, yet turns around to be his great ally. Keira Knightly plays Joan Clarke, a woman with a brilliant mind who is shuffled off the the secretarial pool simply because she is a woman, yet Turing refuses to let her waste her mind so she joins the team by night, playing secretary by day. Knightly and Cumberbatch have excellent chemistry in the film. Mark Strong was MI6’s Stewart Menzies who kept making you wonder whether you were to trust him or like him. He played the fence so well that he was truly someone you always wondered if he was a double agent or not. Other supporting roles were equally well played, but one role that I have rarely seen mentioned in reviews is the Young Alan Turing played by Alex Lawther. It was amazing to see how he mimicked Cumberbatch’s adult version of the character with stature, manners and even facial expressions at times. Cumberbatch is so extremely talented and throws himself so much into a role that he would be very difficult to try and capture as a younger version, yet Lawther gave it his all and succeeded in having us believe himself as a young Turing.
The story starts out in 1951 and goes between 1928, 1946-1948 and 1951 throughout the film. While you are getting flashbacks and flashfowards, it is not hard to follow the timelines and unfolding story. The story is told in Turing’s voice and in his point of view. The script is fairly well written. The two areas where further clarity would have improved the story telling included 1) explaining how they still allowed double agent John Carincross (played by Allen Leech) to continue to remain part of the Engima project when they all knew he was a double agent. It was unclear how he would not have passed along the information that they had cracked the code. It was not well explained and might have strengthened the story and script to include that, while not taking away from the main story; and 2) when Turing was brought into the station and questioned, Detective Robert Nock (played by Rory Kinnear) had been given the choice to judge him by Turing and he said he could not judge him. So again, the transition from that scene to the headline that Turing had been sentenced was not well explained. It isn’t a huge thing, but it would have been nice to understand how that unfolded since it appeared that Detective Nock had sympathy for Turing just moments before, leaving the audience feeling like he might let him go.
What we came away with from the screening was how tragic it is that Turing’s life had to end so early; tragic that he was put on chemical castration regimen because of his sexual identity, in which his body seemed to react in an adverse way; and how much our world probably has lost because of all that he could have given it if he had lived a full life. His gifted mind was meant to offer even more life saving breakthroughs. It was rather devastating to think of all that was lost.
The film did a great job bringing in old analog computation equipment, showing footage of fighter planes, submarines and the destruction war leaves behind. Costuming was appropriate as were many of the other details on sets and exterior shots for the eras covered.
Even with the weaknesses in the script, we give the film 
.