The Imitation Game

For those who don't know the story of Alan Turing, I suggest you read up on him before watching this film, just to truly understand what this brilliant man accomplished. It was wonderful to finally see Turing's story get recognition in the form of a film, and what director Morten Tyldum has done is a truly fitting representation of what Turing achieved. Coupled with Benedict Cumberbatch's career best performance, and an excellent use of flashbacks and a manipulation of time, this film truly is deserved of the 8 Oscar nominations it has received. Certainly, despite strong competition, there is a definite chance that The Imitation Game is in with a very good chance of winning some awards.


Despite much of the Best Leading Actor Oscar hype surrounding Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and Michael Keaton (Birdman), it comes as a surprise that Benedict Cumberbatch's name has hardly been mentioned. He hasn't received much awards success in recent weeks, which I personally find quite shocking. Obviously it is hard to compare Keaton and Cumberbatch, as their performances are naturally different, but when comparing Cumberbatch and Redmayne however, I truly believe that Cumberbatch comes out on top. All credit to Redmayne and a great performance as Stephen Hawking, but I found Cumberbatch's portrayal of the complex, brilliant but ultimately tragic performance as Alan Turing to be far more emotive but also, encapsulate such a story so amazing but tragic that he made the film truly a really beautiful ode to Turing's life. A certainly deserved Oscar nomination and one I would hope to see really in the mix for the win, despite being nominated in such a fiercely competitive category. Another deserved Oscar nomination, for Keira Knightly in the Best Supporting Actress category, who portrayed Turing's close friend Joan Clarke very well, the two actors/characters having excellent chemistry, which ultimately made their roles so much more believable, and led to create great emotion. Notably there were some strong cameos from Matthew Goode (Hugh Alexander), Rory Kinnear (Robert Nock). Mark Strong (Stewart Menzies) and Charles Dance (Commander Denniston). The acting for this film had to be perfect, which it was, and full credit to Benedict Cumberbatch who said about Turing's Royal Pardon: "The only person who should be pardoning anybody is him (Turing. Hopefully, the film will bring to the fore what an extraordinary human being he was and how appalling (his treatment by the government was). It's a really shameful, disgraceful part of our history."
Overall, despite this being a well made film, what's most important about this film is that they gave a perfect representation of Alan Turing, and really showed what a great man he was. What I found most important was that they showed the truly evil nature of the times he lived in, and that no matter if you are homosexual, heterosexual, transsexual, whatever, you can be a great person. The treatment of homosexuals in those days was awful, and I'm so glad that in today's world, people are so much more accepting, I for one fully support the LBGT movement, and I hope this film helps other people to begin to understand that sexuality should not be problem to anyone. This film is a great achievement for actor and director alike, and it is sad that Alan Turing wasn't able to see his work made into a wonderful film, he truly was as a great man. This is a great film I would recommend to essentially everyone, a wonderfully made story and fantastic acting, and I would give it a very high 9/10.