2015 has arrived and with it a cracker of a film as one of the first new releases of the new year. I sat in a three-quarter full theatre last night at the Cremorne Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace to watch 'THE IMITATION GAME' and was wowed by the story line, the history lesson, the manner in which this film unfolds and pulls you in, and by the performances of the principle cast led by Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role as the fractured, emotionally scarred real-life anti-hero Alan Turing. Cumberbatch gives his all to the portrayal of his character, in what has already been described as a career defining performance to date, and surely worthy of an Oscar nod.
The opening scene takes us back to 1951 and we see Turing sat in a Police interrogation room, head bowed waiting for the arrival of the interviewing Detective. Turing provides some voice over commentary and then we are whisked back to the early outbreak of the second World War and his arrival at Bletchley Park which is supposedly home to the armed forces radio command, but secretly houses an assembled crack team attempting to break encrypted Nazi communication code. Interviewed by Commander Denniston (Charles Dance) our mathematician genius Turing meets largely with ambivalence from the supervising Commander and is nearly dispatched from whence he came, except that on being shown the door he blurts out the word 'Enigma' - supposedly top secret and known only to the highest ranking privileged few.
Turing announces that he has the best mathematical mind in the world and that he likes puzzles and problem solving, that he can break the Nazi Enigma Code and in so doing save the lives of millions and help bring the war to an end. Enter Stuart Menzies (Mark Strong) a high ranking official in MI6 who takes Turing under his wing despite the obvious disdain shown by Denniston who has developed an intense dislike for Turing. With endorsement from Sir Winston Churchill himself Turing is appointed lead of the team of recruited mathematicians, cryptologists and sundry other experts to work on breaking Enigma. Along the way Turing fires various dead weights from the team and appoints a couple of others - one is Joan Clarke (Keira Knightly) - a female (of all things!) mathematical genius whom Turing instantly takes a shine to.
As this unfolds we learn of Turing's past and we are taken back to his young teenage school days in the late 1920's at the private Sherborne Boy's School in rural Dorset, England. Turing is seen as an outsider, he does little to mix with the other boys and considers himself above the other far less intelligent boys in his class or indeed the school. As a result he is bullied, chided, beaten up mentally and physically and grows ever more inward. Only one other lad provides any solace - classmate Christopher Morcom (Jack Bannon) and the two form a close bond, and it is Christopher who introduces Turing to the world of cryptology, which he latches on to very quickly having such an acute mathematical mind.
To and fro we flit between 1951 and the WWII years. In the former Turing is under investigation by Detective Robert Nock (Rory Kinnear) because of a break in at Turing's home which was seemingly turned upside down but nothing was reported stolen. This leads Nock to think that all is not quite as it seems so starts digging deeper, ultimately learning that Turing is homosexual - and such acts of 'indecency' were illegal in the England of the 1950's. Nock attempts to learn more of Turing's history and other that knowing that he is a Professor of Mathematics from Cambridge, there is no data from what he did in the war - these are 'Classified' and simply don't exist - they have been erased completely we learn.
As for the latter, Turing heading up his Team have a seemingly impossible task given that the Enigma codes change every day at midnight. When the Nazi's start broadcasting at about 6:00am Bletchely Park can intercept unto 3,000 radio messages a day giving Turing and his team only 18 hours to decipher and crack the code before they have to reboot and start from scratch again the next morning. This carries on for years and is a manual process, and all the while Turing is building his own 'computer' that he has designed and knows will work, but at a cost to the Home Office of 100,000 pounds sterling at the time there are few that share his faith - even in his own team whom he has alienated because of his obsessive uncaring behaviour toward them. Meanwhile Denniston is breathing down his neck to get results as the war rolls on and the body count gets ever higher by the day.
Eventually Turing's code breaking machine (which he has called 'Christopher') springs into life with revolving wheels, cogs, dials and wires all tuned into the Enigma codes which are intercepted daily. But the wheels, cogs and dials keep on whirring, clanging and turning with no results forthcoming - something is missing! Eventually though that missing link is found and 'Christopher' comes good and the Nazi's Enigma codes are broken. Needless to say it doesn't end there though as there unfolds a moral dilemma surrounding the team and how they should best approach this new found intelligence they have over the Nazi's war effort. Here Stuart Menzies comes into his own as the MI6 representative weaving conspiracy theories at the very highest political level to ensure that the Nazi's and their allies aren't made aware that the English and her allies have broken the code.
All comes good in the end - the war comes to a halt in 1945 and the closing scene tells us that Turing's efforts helped save the lives of 14 million and brought the war to a premature end probably by up to two years had Enigma not been broken. Turing though never received any credit for his efforts - was convicted in 1951 for 'indecency' and committed suicide in 1954 allegedly by eating a cyanide laced apple. After the war he continued to work on 'thinking' machines borne out of his work in developing 'Christopher' during the war, and in many respects it is Turing who laid the foundations for the devices we use today in our everyday lives and take for granted - computers!
Directed by Morten Tyldum, this true story historical drama is certainly worthy of the 34 awards wins it has already garnered and the 63 award nominations it has thus far received including five Golden Globe nominations and three Screen Actors Guild Award nominations. Cumberbatch shines in this role and delivers his strongest characterisation yet pulling you in to his fractured, emotional, helpless, obsessive and misunderstood world; Keira Knightly very ably supports as the very intelligent young girl torn between duty to family and duty to her country at a time when women were considered only good for secretarial and office administrative duties . . . or nursing! And then Mark Strong, Charles Dance and the team of assembled cryptologists all provide solid, strong support in the roles they play that collectively add up to a film that is far greater than the sum of its parts.Watch out for the Oscar buzz, and a great start to the 2015 film season. Catch it on the big screen while you can.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
