"Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine."
Third and final film to complete our three-film marathon saw us sitting down to watch 'The Imitation Game'. Being a real sucker for films based on true stories, I was quite intrigued to see what this movie had to offer.
'The Imitation Game' is a British/American thriller based on the life of mathematician Allen Turing portrayed here by Benedict Cumberbatch. Turing has been hired by the government to find a way to crack Nazi German messages encrypted by 'Enigma'. This being an almost impossible task, the main problem is that the code changes daily and there are millions of different combinations. Turing, along with a group of other scholars, must race against the clock each day to find a way to understand these messages. Turing believes he can create a machine which will crack the daily code and help allies to understand German moves to end WW2. With insight into Turing's past, it becomes evident as to why he is so determined to create this code-cracking machine.
After all the hype and recommendations I was expecting this movie to be outstanding. To a degree, this was the case. The acting is almost flawless with another fab performance from Cumberbatch and a near perfect performance from Knightley. The rest of the cast were solid and the young actors were as great as you would hope from a Hollywood Blockbuster. I was expecting the film to concentrate on the task at hand of cracking the Nazi code but so often we almost get there and we are given scenes of Turing's life at the time along with flashbacks from his school days. The scenes were dramatic and moving with a particularly powerful final scene which did bring a tear to my eye. My problem with this film, as is the case with a lot of films these days, is that it was too drawn out. I just wanted to get back to the main plot without all these deviations. Also the main point of the film is actually not about this group of scholars trying to break 'Enigma' but more focussed on Turing's life. Maybe I have had enough of these 'it was awful to be gay back then' films. This for me is where 'The Imitation Game' loses points, otherwise an amazing film with moving scenes and Oscar-worthy performances.
7/10 for 'The Imitation Game'. Some may think that's harsh but I just feel it was 20 minutes too long.
After all the hype and recommendations I was expecting this movie to be outstanding. To a degree, this was the case. The acting is almost flawless with another fab performance from Cumberbatch and a near perfect performance from Knightley. The rest of the cast were solid and the young actors were as great as you would hope from a Hollywood Blockbuster. I was expecting the film to concentrate on the task at hand of cracking the Nazi code but so often we almost get there and we are given scenes of Turing's life at the time along with flashbacks from his school days. The scenes were dramatic and moving with a particularly powerful final scene which did bring a tear to my eye. My problem with this film, as is the case with a lot of films these days, is that it was too drawn out. I just wanted to get back to the main plot without all these deviations. Also the main point of the film is actually not about this group of scholars trying to break 'Enigma' but more focussed on Turing's life. Maybe I have had enough of these 'it was awful to be gay back then' films. This for me is where 'The Imitation Game' loses points, otherwise an amazing film with moving scenes and Oscar-worthy performances.
7/10 for 'The Imitation Game'. Some may think that's harsh but I just feel it was 20 minutes too long.
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