Turing joins other Oscar heroes this year like Hawking, Zamperini, and Moses.
The Imitation Game
Grade: A
Director: Morten Tyldum (Headhunters)
Screenplay: Graham Moore from the Andrew Hodges book.
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch (August: Osage County), Keira Knightly (Laggies)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 114 min.
by John DeSando
“Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.” Joan Clarke (Keira Knightly)
Don’t let that rather facile slogan fool you into thinking The Imitation Game is full of aphorisms and sappy nationalism. It is rather full of the heroism of scientists who persevered in pursing the Nazi Enigma Code until they broke it.
The unassuming mathematician and logician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) broke the Code and won the war two years earlier than predicted while, by the way, saving an estimated 14 million lives. Even Stephen Hawking’s 10 million copies of A Brief History of Time pales next to Turing’s application of his genius to the matter of WWII.
Lest I forget, Turing is called “The Father of modern computer science.” Considering how many lives have been affected by his computing invention, The Imitation Game has a first-rate hero in its subject. Cumberbatch plays him as a self-conscious, arrogant nerd whom his commanders can’t quite fire because Winston Churchill supports him and eventually his co-workers do as well.
Director Morten Tyldum has quiet reverence for the work Turing and his team did—the intercutted scenes of battle and destruction emphasize how important the team’s work was not just to England, but the whole world.
Although Cumberbatch will be nominated for an Oscar, Knightly should too because underplays her lone female scientist with grace and charm. Here’s hoping she gets a nod in addition to the SAG nomination for best supporting actress. Her speech in response to Turing’s admittance of being a “homosexual” is one of her best moments on screen.
It is no secret about Turing’s homosexual orientation, illegal in 1940’s England, and from the film we can only guess that after a year of taking court-ordered chemical castration, he committed suicide because of the treatment.
Another British genius, Oscar Wilde, suffered similarly after being convicted of “indecency.” This film could have dealt more with Turing’s personal challenges, but what the heck, 14 million lives is not bad at all for a hero.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
