Film Review | The Imitation Game

Alan Turing not only inadvertently saved around 14 million lives in World War II, his research also led to the creation of computers as we know them today.

But as unfortunately happens with geniuses ahead of their time, Turing was lonely and depressed by the time that he died – his wartime achievements (he helped to programme the ‘Enigma’ machine, which intercepted and decoded countless Nazi dispatches) obscured by his homosexuality, still illegal in the 1950s.

Adapted for the big screen by Graham Moore, The Imitation Game takes the work of Turing biographer Andrew Hodges as its main inspiration. At the helm of Norwegian director Morten Tyldum (Headhunters), it remains an affecting but ‘polite’ drama, apportioning its appeal equally to the Downton Abbey crowd, espionage enthusiasts and anyone with the LGBT cause close to their hearts.

After mathematician and Cambridge prodigy Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) manages to wrangle his way into British military, he promptly convinces Winston Churchill to remotely appoint him as head of the secret operation at Bletchley Park, much to the chagrin of his superior, Commander Alastair Denniston (Charles Dance).

Mercilessly pruning two members from the team, Turing sets about crafting plans for the ‘Engima’ machine, having received a financial boost from the Home Office. However, the success of this complex and supposedly pioneering piece of machinery – which vows to help the Allies pre-empt German military moves by deciphering their messages far quicker than tried-and-tested methods – remains uncertain. The body count piles on as the men toil away.

Meanwhile, the addition of a female to the Bletchley Park crew – Joan Clarke (Kiera Knightley) – puts Turing’s homosexuality into keener focus, and we are given a glimpse of how it affected his past… and how it haunts the latter part of his life.

The Imitation Game is, at its heart, a genteel blockbuster. And like its more obnoxious (and often 3D) counterparts, it tries to net as many audience categories in one fell swoop.

You’ve got the over-35 population, who are probably hungry for a film that isn’t a comic book adaptation or a young adult franchise adaptation or a sequel/remake/reboot of the same. You’ve got the ‘Cumberbitches’ – the legion of Benedict Cumberbatch fangirls and fanboys who will be loyal to the ‘Sherlock’ actor no matter what. Then you’ve got period drama fans in general, and those who like a bit of good old-fashioned espionage.

Coupled with its time-hopping narrative – the central action takes place at the tail end of the 30s, with flashbacks to the 20s and forwards to the 50s – this makes for a challenging juggling act. Tyldum is however up to the task. Though he’s liberal with some of the history and allows one too many plot clichés too many, he manages to keep the story rolling along at a brisk pace.

With the main action of the film essentially being about a group of men (and a woman) slaving over pieces of paper and – latterly – gawping in front of a whirring wall-sized proto computer, strong-arming a few dramatic ‘beats’ was always going to be necessary. Flashbacks to a younger, boarding school Turing (Alex Lawther) reveal the delicate stirrings of his homosexuality, while the 1950s segment gives both a frame narrative and adds some urgency, as Turing is hounded by the suspicious Detective Noack (Rory Kinnear). But the main dramatic attraction remains Turing, of course, and Cumberbatch doesn’t have to dig too deep into his bag of tricks to come up with a convincing portrayal of a man out of time.

Apart from the obvious eccentric-savant shtick of his most popular role to date – BBC’s Sherlock – Cumberbatch also took on the role of Stephen Hawking (another BBC production) and more recently Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate, in which his beguiling performance nearly came close to rescuing an otherwise plodding mess of a film.

But though Cumberbatch’s performance is sensitive, he’s let down by a script which has him box-tick a number of ‘outsider’ points in order to keep Turing’s life-story in conformity with the blockbuster model. Knightley fares a lot worse – apart from being too pretty to play a ‘mousy’ type (her frumpy wig is seen doing visible overtime at one point) as always the actress fails to emote with any subtlety.

It’s a good thing that the older guys are allowed to chew some scenery. Charles Dance being Charles Dance is a joy to savour here as always, and any Game of Thrones fan will take great pleasure in seeing Tywin Lannister transposed into a World War II setting. As MI6 Chief Stewart Menzies, Mark Strong also gets to break out of the ‘classy villain’ rut and play a character who may fall on the ambiguous side of the spectrum, but whose suave manoeuvrings you can’t help but root for.

As a piece of bona fide cinema, The Imitation Game is a tad too made-for-measure. But as a timely commemoration of Turing’s achievements, it has far more emotional weight than the posthumous apology by Queen Elizabeth, made only last year… nearly 50 years after Turing’s suicide.