3.5 stars out of 5
Alan Turing had entered my life twice before. In a required philosophy lecture course in my freshman year of college, we used a piece of software called “Turing’s World.” (Yep, it was such a geeky school, there were even computers in philosophy class.) Then, more than a decade later, my buddy Jerry Fuchs (R.I.P.) was the drummer in a band called Turing Machine.
And there were other drips and drabs about Turing that sunk in over the years: He was gay, he was arrested. Maybe something about World War II. Still, there was a lot for me to learn from The Imitation Game.
There is an educational feel to the movie, almost as if it was made for a high-school-aged audience. (A fairly progressive high school, anyway.) And while that means the film lacks some of the nuances that could raise it to true greatness, the straightforward style allows any viewer to fully take in a really important historical and personal story.
Benedict Cumberbatch is superb as Alan Turing. Of the nominated best actors, he and Steve Carrell gave the strongest performances, in my humble estimation. (And wouldn’t you know, the buzz is that those are the only two guys who don’t have a chance to win.) It’s a shame that Big Bang Theory exists, because I couldn’t help but think “Oh, Turing’s a bit like Sheldon.” But Cumberbatch is capable of things that Jim Parsons is not, and his Alan Turing is by turns confident and vulnerable (fragile, even), cold and caring, nasty and… well, kind of nice. And he’s a textbook awkward genius — a visionary.
Second-best actor in the movie? Young Alex Lawther as young Alan Turing! Though the film is generally “first A happened, then B, then C,” it also effectively flashes both back and forward. In the past scenes, Lawther brilliantly portrays the child-who-is-father-to-the-man: a stuttering, ashamed boy, suddenly flush with hope and feelings for a brighter future.
Keira Knightley, we all know how I feel about her, and she’s charming as ever as Joan Clarke. But more importantly — you know what, maybe I should take this movie around to high schools — Knightley presents Clarke as a wonderful role model for young girls, especially with modern society’s half-baked assumptions about teen girls’ relationship with math and science.
Other actors here do decent if unremarkable work. Charles Dance is unable to prevent his commanding officer character from being a paint-by-numbers mean guy in charge. (“Stop it with your cleverness, this is the military! I’m going to shut this program down!”)
Ooh, do you watch Black Mirror? The prime minister dude from the first episode, he’s in this, so that’s cool.
A late scene with Cumberbatch and Knightley gets a little bit too “tell” instead of “show.” (“You’ve really had a wonderful life, Alan Turing!”) But it’s rescued by some of that pre-credit text, bringing us up to date on the true story — that stuff punched me in the gut. Quite a guy, that Alan Turing. And a helpful reminder to me to finally pick up Turning Machine’s 2012 album.
Jack Silbert, curator