An intriguing central character and story and good performances keep this film entertaining throughout, but structurally the film has problems that make this feel like a missed opportunity. There is obviously an emphasis on Turing's achievements and this forms the backbone of the film. Despite the multitude of cliches on display as Turing races against time and people who don't understand his genius, it is held together by solid performances from Cumberbatch and Knightley and some great support particularly from Charles Dance and Mark Strong. It is a shame then that the more interesting elements of the story occur after the code is broken as characters must decide what to do next, but very little time is spent on this. Equally, Turing's ultimate fate after the war deserves as much attention and his homosexuality was an important facet of the character. It is a surprise therefore to find that this issue is essentially relegated to an overarching framing story, a couple of flashback to his school days and as a postscript to the film. In essence, this is a rather by-the-numbers film that pays lip service to some rather more complex issues. This could have been a much better film.
This movie is so ham-fisted it hurts. The historical inaccuracy aside, this movie plays like an incredibly stupid person decided to write what he thought a smart person was like in the most generic way possible. "I-I'm a genius b-but I can't understand simple human interaction" real anti-social people aren't that way because they don't understand basic English vernacular. They should have done more research than watching the Big Bang Theory every night. It's not just Touring though, every character and plot point is simplified to an absurd level. The simplification doesn't even make sense sometimes, like when they had the main characters allow the one guy's brother's ship get blown up to hide the fact that they decoded Enigma. The reality of what happened was that the British Government decided to allow a town in France to get completely annihilated so the German's wouldn't know they had broken Enigma. Why the fuck would they change this? It seriously baffles me to think of what was going through the writer's brain. Also, it's complete bullshit that the Code Breakers won the war (which they will explicitly state numerous times throughout the movie) sure it made the Allies lose less men and helped them when planning attacks but the German's were not going to win just because the Allies couldn't break their codes.
In short it's a simplified and distorted version of events meant for people who do not know what really happened and who do not want to think very much while watching a movie about people breaking a complex code.
Review by Sarah YehiaBlockedParent2015-02-28T05:29:57Z
That being said, I have to stay I was blown away by the movie in itself and the sheer brilliance of Cumberbatch's performance which will not be the first time..
The movie not only includes a brilliant performance but the script and the story line is captivating from beginning till end making it totally worth to be nominated for four academy awards this year which are best picture, best supporting actress for Keira Knightley, best directing, and best actor for the ever so deserving Cumberbatch to which I would be so very disappointed if he did not snag that baby home.
As far as the Critical response goes, Another incident where the Critics and I agree. I really ought to have my temperature checked
The film has received positive reviews, with critics particularly lauding Cumberbatch's lead performance as Turing.
Rotten Tomatoes sampled 216 critics and judged 90% of the reviews positive with an average rating of 7.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "With an outstanding starring performance from Benedict Cumberbatch illuminating its fact-based story, The Imitation Game serves as an eminently well-made entry in the 'prestige biopic' genre."
On Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on 47 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".The film received a grade of "A+" from market-research firm CinemaScore and was included in both the National Board of Review's and American Film Institute's "Top 10 Films of 2014".
If you have not watch it already, you really have to, even if it did not win the Oscars this year.. This movie is really NOT something you should miss..