This awards season will go down as a duel between British biopics. Socially awkward geniuses Stephen Hawking and the late Alan Turing go head-to-head, but only one can win out. Thankfully, at least one of these movies has proved enjoyable and that’s the one about Turing.
Director Morten Tyldum and writer Graham Moore bring Turing’s incredible story to life in The Imitation Game, thanks to an impressive performance from Benedict Cumberbatch. Turing and his team, which included Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) and Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode), cracked Germany’s unbreakable Enigma code and it is estimated that this achievement shaved years off of World War II in Europe. In the process, Turing built one of the first computers in the world.
However, Turing had his secret - he was a homosexual, which of course was illegal in England until 1967. While this is actually one of the more interesting aspects of Turing’s life, Moore didn’t really focus on that aspect as much as some may have thought. Indeed, the thrills in this film are focused on Turing’s computer and cracking that code.
Moore’s script is told in three layers. The film begins in 1951, when Turing’s apartment is broken into and he tries to hide what was stolen. This leads to police discovering his sexuality. Once arrested, Turing tells a detective his World War II story, which makes up most of the film. A third layer reveals a young Turing (Alex Lawther) making his first friend, Christopher.
The Imitation Game does try to cover a lot in its 114 minutes, but thanks to Moore’s inventive use of time, it feels less like a recap of Turing’s life and more like the thriller he and Tyldum want. The tension over the machine’s possible success or failure is ratcheted up throughout the film, like even in great thrillers that aren’t disguised as biopics.
Sadly, that does make you wonder why Moore decided to even touch on Turing’s homosexuality and what happened to him after the war. Obviously, it simply can’t be ignored, but Moore and Tyldum clearly wanted to make a WWII thriller about cracking Enigma. Unfortunately, today’s Hollywood biopics must show all parts of its subject’s life, so Turing’s post-war life is shoehorned in, almost like an afterthought. It’s great to include it, but a filmmaker has to decide what the film is going to be about - Turing’s life or Enigma. If it’s the latter, then you’ll have to make a longer movie.
What does make The Imitation Game so engrossing is Cumberbatch’s beautiful performance as Turing. He really shows here that he’s not going to be type-cast as a fast-talking know-it-all like Sherlock. Turing may be socially awkward, but Cumberbatch is welcoming to the audience, letting us see how that mind of Turing’s worked. If this wasn’t Michael Keaton’s year for Birdman, Cumberbatch would be the frontrunner for the Best Actor Oscar.
It’s also pleasing to see Keira Knightley give a touching performance as Joan, the only person Turing actually cares for. She isn’t just the audience’s window inside the Enigma project, but she’s actually involved. Knightley is certainly gifted, making sure her character isn’t just an exposition board for Turing.
The Imitation Game falls into some paint-by-numbers biopic pratfalls - from a clumsily-written line repeated three times to get someone motivated to a curiously long postscript sequence - but Tyldum and Moore’s decision not to tell a linear story gives it a significant boost. Cumberbatch gives one of the year’s best performances as Turing, too. Surprisingly, it’s a film that deserves to be seen on the big screen thanks to those close-ups of Cumberbatch, where the audience sees emotion in ways we rarely do in films today.
image courtesy of INFphoto.com