The Imitation Game

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/30/14 at 7:35pm

Saw it today & highly recommend it.

Cumberbatch is great as is the rest of the cast. Holds your attention from start to finish. Was not aware of the story behind it and found it compellingly told. He was a genius who was a tortured soul.

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/30/14 at 8:52pm

I also saw this today. Wonderful cast including strong performances by Charles Dance, the beautiful Keira Knightly, the beautiful Matthew Goode, and particularly Mark Strong as the head of MI6. But the movie works because of the subtle and heart-breaking work by Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing. Cumberbatch manages, as he always seems to do, to inhabit this role. Every posture, every glance, every hesitation feels absolutely natural. The little boy who plays Alan as a child in public school is so consistent with the mature Cumberbatch: the director makes that characterization seamless.

I thought the screenplay was beautifully crafted and intelligent, although the use of flashbacks among time periods got a little clunky towards the end.

It hasn't been a year of great (or even good movies), but this is one of the best of 2014 for me.

Updated On: 12/30/14 at 08:52 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/14 at 9:45pm

"Was not aware of the story behind it…"

Well, you DO block the very people who might tell you of our history.

[Fantod]

Posted: 12/30/14 at 10:01pm

I didn't know you were a computer scientist, Namo.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/30/14 at 10:08pm

Oh I am. When I am not teaching at a conservatory. In a leafy green suburb. Everything I know I learned from musicals. I see EVERY musical, even if I am not interested in it in the least. In my spare time I break codes, like the ones at Sony.

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 1:09am

Loved this film--it was my favorite of the year. Even though I knew quite a lot of the story before the film (and even some fascinating pieces of Turring's story that weren't addressed), I was gripped from start to finish. Cumberbatch once again demonstrated his mastery at playing socially challenged geniuses--I just hope he doesn't keep getting typecast as he has given very nice performances in different roles as well. The screenplay does a fantastic job of focusing the story and making the complex scientific aspects understandable without every talking down to the audiences; it triumphed in the places where "The Theory of Everything" really failed to deliver. I saw those two films on consecutive days and found it fascinating that we have two biopics about scientific geniuses, but the films are incredibly different. And I know which one I will be rooting for come Oscar night.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 1:15am

Is it acting or behaving, would you say?

[ArtMan]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 8:07am

Awesome Danny, I also saw both Imitation Game and Theory and enjoyed both. However, I felt Imitation Game presented Turring's character more credible, giving the audience "warts and all". I know little of Turing and Hawking. It seemed in Theory, Hawking was presented as someone with no character flaws. He was the good son, the popular student, the good friend, for the most part the good husband, the great father and lastly the brilliant genius.



Updated On: 12/31/14 at 08:07 AM

[rosscoe(au)]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 9:23am

It really was an amazing movie, had no idea of the back story either, was inters by the end of it. really was one of the years best movies.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 12:17pm

Derek Jacobi played Alan Turing on Broadway in Hugh Whitemore's "Breaking the Code" back in '87/'88. Jacobi starred in the film adaptation released in 1996.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 12:26pm

Liked both equally

It will be a dogfight between Cumberbatch & Redmayne for Best Actor Oscars. Both are worthy performances.

[Fantod]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 2:25pm

And Miles Teller and Ralph Fiennes.

[singtopher]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 3:00pm

I've also seen both The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything.

These two films will certainly be compared against each other this season, and I'd also cast my vote for The Imitation Game for telling a far more focused story.

ArtMan really nailed it with his analysis of the way these two men are depicted. However, in The Theory of Everything, the story was somewhat chaos. Perhaps the screenwriter and director were so enamored with Hawking's' numerous compelling stories (His relationship, scientific breakthroughs, rapid physical decline) they wanted to tell all of it, but didn't have time to do any of these stories a whole lot of justice. At the end of the day, I liked the movie, but it was mostly about Redmayne delivering a wonderful performance.

I saw The Imitation Game about a month ago at a screening, and the more I think about it, the more I enjoy it. The Enigma machine decoding has plenty of dramatic tension, but the story is even more rich with a complex central character whose personal characteristics are a vital plot point. Superb performances, and (mostly) clear storytelling throw the whole movie over the top.

[wonkit]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 5:57pm

I haven't seen THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING yet but do want to see Eddie Redmayne. I can't help but wonder if the fact that THEORY is based upon Hawking's first wife's autobiography/biography and she was involved in the making of the film, that the producers had to go the hagiography route rather than the warts-and-all route. And I had seen Cumberbatch as Hawking in the British TV film, and thought him so extraordinary in that!

As for fear of Cumberbatch being typecast as the odd one out - he has a rather unique ability to make a difficult character interesting (see PARADE's END), and that is not easy. I am totally ready for him to do an intelligent romantic comedy. Especially after seeing him in the "Look I'm Colin Firth as Darcy" shot that appeared this year.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 7:23pm

Ralph Fiennes is remarkable in BUDAPEST HOTEL. He won't win because it's a comic performance, and they seldom do; but it's the most complicated piece of work this year. I never much cared for Fiennes and he won me over, big time.

[Fantod]

Posted: 12/31/14 at 7:37pm

I hope beyond hope that Fiennes wins. His performance in Budapest (the year's best film) was outstanding.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 1/1/15 at 10:29am

Am I the only person who hates every tedious, miserable moment of Grand Budapest...?

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 1/1/15 at 11:57am

You may very well be.

[Fantod]

Posted: 1/1/15 at 1:35pm

iluvtheatertrash, Wes Anderson is a director who you either love or hate. I think every single second of every single one of his movies is wonderful, with Grand Budapest being the best of them all, but some people just cannot stand any of his work.

[canmark]

Posted: 1/1/15 at 2:52pm

I think the big difference between The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything is that the latter is about a well-known, living scientist while the former is about a lesser-known, dead scientist.

Thus, the focus of The Theory of Everything is on Stephen Hawking’s personal life, his relationship with his wife and family, and the toll of ALS. Some were disappointed that the emphasis was not on his science, but one can learn that from books and documentaries. He has, after all, lived a long life and his work is well known. I thought the movie did a very good job of humanizing him.

Alan Turing, on the other hand, is less well-known and so the movie focuses on his most significant accomplishment – cracking the Enigma code which helped turn the tide of the war. That he was a war hero and one of the fathers of the computer, yet was persecuted after the war and driven to suicide is tragic. This is also emphasized in the film.

I thought both films struck a good balance in showing a side to these extremely influential scientists that the general public may not have been aware of. I think The Imitation Game is more of a “best picture” type film than The Theory of Everything, although I would take Eddie Redmayne over Benedict Cumberbatch as “best actor” for his performance which often required acting without speaking.

[darquegk]

Posted: 1/1/15 at 4:10pm

After looking at Reddit, which tends to be pretty gay-friendly at large, it appears that the scientific community's consensus on Turing's death is no longer "suicide linked to his sexuality." Equally supported by current evidence are the theories that he was murdered and that his poisoning was an accident related to his ongoing experiments involving cyanide.

As someone outside but closely allied to both the wueer community and computer science community, I ask this question in the hopes that someone from within one or both will be able to answer: if Turing's death was not what the movie and associated historical narrative presents, is it disingenuous to present him as a modern queer martyr? Or, given the current sociopolitical climate and recent suicides over such issues, is it more important to tell this story regardless of truth, simply because it needs to be told? Or on a less political note, does it make the best story, with drama more important than history?

When issues like this come up I wish I were back in graduate school, discussing in seminar.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 1/1/15 at 4:23pm

Derek Jacobi played Alan Turing on Broadway in Hugh Whitemore's "Breaking the Code" back in '87/'88. Jacobi starred in the film adaptation released in 1996.

THank u Namo! I keep telling people this is NOT an unknown story. ( there was a stage production in TO I very clearly remember seeing)As a species we have such short memories . betcha Bush does get elected on that fact alone.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 1/1/15 at 4:56pm

It's really interesting. There was a time when people of my generation would have made sure the people of the next generation knew all about things like "Breaking the Code." But nowadays (he said in his rocking chair) everything just gets rebooted.

[Patronus]

Posted: 1/1/15 at 6:46pm

It will be a dogfight between Cumberbatch & Redmayne for Runner Up for Best Actor Oscars Both are worthy performances. Michael Keaton is the clear front runner.

Fixed.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 1/3/15 at 5:26pm

The British government sentenced Alan Turing to chemical castration, driving him to apparent suicide, and the British film industry continues the punishment in the revoltingly sentimental button-pushing THE IMITATION GAME. Every cheap easy trope is trotted out (flashbacks to relevant childhood traumas, convenient reshuffling of chronology, even a FORREST GUMPIAN one liner is delivered twice in ten minutes and then once more at the end so we'll really GET IT). The history is apparently sketchy, the spy Cairncross wasn't in the same department as Turing and they never met, and the attempt to let the cops (and the government) off the hook for their bigotry by linking homophobia with Cold War paranoia is pretty ugly. The film ends with a nauseating self-congratulatory scene of Keira Knightley delivering a tidy heterosexual benediction on Turing (We're so glad you were abnormal because you won the war) -- it's like they're patting him on the head and sending him off to bed like Cindy Lou Who.

Updated On: 1/3/15 at 05:26 PM