Film review: The Imitation Game
During World War 2, Alan Turing built a computer, and in so doing, he saved Western civilization from the encroaching spread of the Third Reich. Unable to speak openly of his role as a codebreaker in the government’s top secret operations to defeat Hitler’s forces, he committed suicide less than 10 years later because of forced hormonal treatment for his homosexuality.
His reputation as an academic had been ruined, and almost no one knew the importance of his work until a generation later, when his problem-solving machine became just another household appliance.
The Imitation Game is an eminently watchable film that makes clear the importance of Turing’s work and the prejudice he was up against because he was different than most other people. Luckily the theme and the performances are strong enough to carry the film, as the storytelling is sorely lacking, and there are few scenes that can truly move us.
The “key” to understanding the code of the story and its main character is almost too easy to find, and the narrative would have been much better served by an accumulation and presentation of smaller details (the image of a crossword puzzle runs through the film and could have been better utilized to this end), instead of having characters bluntly state that Turing is gay.
To read the full review, visit The Prague Post. The Imitation Game is currently on wide release in Bulgaria.
(Still of Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game. © 2013 – Black Bear Pictures)
