The Imitation Game (2014)
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The Imitation Game Movie Review
The Imitation Game is a 2014 biographical drama film directed by Morten Tyldum and starring Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s one of the better biopics of the decade.
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“Sometimes it’s the very people who no one imagines anything of
who do the things no one can imagine“
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Alan Turing, a British mathematician, joins the cryptography team to decipher the German enigma code. With the help of his fellow mathematicians, he builds a machine to crack the codes. The main reason why this movie worked so well lies in its tone and approach. Yes, it has its conventional biopic elements, but it focuses so heavily on Alan Turing himself and what he was like as a person and what he went through, which made it a true, emotionally driven character study as all biopics should be after all.
Unlike ‘The Theory of Everything’, The Imitation Game also doesn’t forget to depict the science behind this story, which made it the better of the two films. The conventional sequences include the obligatory scene where the protagonist realizes that he can’t do it alone and he needs his friends’ help as well as that typical moment where he realizes something crucial unexpectedly and everybody races to the office to utilize that idea.
But those moments were only sporadic and the rest of the movie was outstanding across the board. The thriller elements were very intriguing and they made for a more entertaining take on a somewhat tiresome biopic formula. The film importantly depicts Turing as the grandfather of the computer as a whole.
But even more crucially it doesn’t shy away from portraying his homosexuality and how the horrendous laws of the time ruined his life. The third act was heartbreaking as you get to see him chemically castrate himself. The juxtaposition of what he did for the country and to bring WWII to a quicker end and how he was thanked for it was powerful and it made for a truly emotional viewing experience. And it is never preachy dealing with these themes, but rather delicate and subtle.
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The friends were actually quite memorable as characters and their dynamic made for a necessary respite from the serious subject matter at hand as it was delightfully playful and funny. That tone ranging from deadly serious and heartbreaking to irreverent and amusing was so well balanced.
The acting highlights are of course Keira Knightley and Benedict Cumberbatch. Keira Knightley has rarely been better than she was here as this smart woman ahead of her time who is also deeply empathetic and just a fun person to hang around. She was wonderful throughout and their relationship, though far from historically accurate, was so charming and beautiful.
As for Benedict Cumberbatch, he definitely was typecast here as Turing is after all another Sherlock-type character that he got to perform as once again. However, he imbued this character with so much emotional anguish and complex characterization that he felt authentic nonetheless. Just seeing so many emotions play out on his face was very powerful. This was one of the best performances of the year and he should have won an Oscar for it.
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The Imitation Game is also technically polished – the production design is brilliant (the ancient computer device looked cool and unique), the score by Desplat is one of his better works, the costumes are excellent and the movie is both well directed and wonderfully paced as it’s highly engaging throughout, which is a rare feat for the genre. The dialogue is also excellent and the flashbacks were well crafted too, though a bit on the conventional side.
The Imitation Game is one of the better biopics of its decade. It has its conventional sequences for sure, but it’s so well edited, paced and directed that it was highly engaging throughout, which is a rare feat for the genre. Benedict Cumberbatch delivered his best performance yet as Turing while Keira Knightley was also terrific. The movie functions as an emotionally charged character study with a truly heartbreaking ending.
My Rating – 4.5
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