it's imitation, not intimidation, you retard

Movie Review

The Imitation Game is incredibly well done. It is a powerful film possibly worthy of best picture of the year though its too early to tell. The audience gave it a resounding applause at the end and it is surprisingly much more mainstream audience friendly than I expected.

The best example I can give for it is A Beautiful Mind meets The King's Speech. Out of the past 15 years of best picture winners it feels very much like a mixture of those two in terms of themes. I really liked Crowe's performance in Mind but Cumberbatch's performance here is at another level. The script and dialogue especially in this is top notch and can't be understated. The lead acting is phenomenal though Keira doesn't add/subtract much from this. I doubt she has a chance at anything more than a nomination.

Cumberbatch is a revelation in this though. He is incredibly good and it really is a highly powerful performance. He is a lock in my mind for a nomination and has a chance at a win though its too early to tell. In my opinion, I wouldn't rule out that he could win the best actor Oscar because he's that good in this.

Best actor, screenplay, director, picture seem like very good possibilities though.

I still feel it doesn't quite have the aura of 12 Years A Slave and so there is still an opening for another best picture winner. However, this has dark horse potential so I would not rule it out. It leaves the audience with a very powerful message that I think is going to resonate with audiences and will garner lots of attention once it expands. If this loses best picture, I can still see them reward the film with best actor for Cumberbatch's performance. It is going to be very hard to ignore this performance as it is the glue for the film that elevates it to another level.

I can't echo enough the dialogue on this as well as the lead performance. The audience really dug the British humor in this one and I was pleasantly surprised how this doesn't feel at all like a period piece on its own. I found in some ways it was even more accessible and powerful than The King's Speech in some ways.

If I could change one thing, I'd say they needed a bit more transition between the second and third acts of the film. Minor point though this movie is well worth seeing.

8.5/10

It's really good. I thought Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley were both fantastic - Cumberbatch is obviously the standout and is assured an Oscar nomination but I thought Knightley really made the role her own and I loved her character. Their final scene together is heartbreaking. Matthew Goode is also strong in a supporting role. The movie does a good job of not feeling like a traditional period piece and I was surprised at the amount of humor that was present as well. The whole story is pretty fascinating and ultimately the ending is pretty powerful stuff. It's definitely worth checking out for the performances and should be a crowd pleaser despite the somber note it closes on. A-

The Imitation Game is very welcome as a biographical picture focused on Alan Turing, the British computer scientist, cryptanalyst, and mathematician. Turing is famous for unraveling the Germans' formidable Enigma code during the Second World War and partly laying the ideological and technological foundation for our digital age. On a tragic note, he is also remembered as a gay man who committed suicide after absurd prosecution for indecency and subsequent chemical-castration "treatment." Many people will enter this film more interested in Turing the covert war hero and mathematical genius. Others will enter it chiefly interested in Turing's contemptible persecution and melancholy fate. As directed by Morten Tyldum, who made a name for himself with the rip-roaring and splashy Norwegian heist film Headhunters, The Imitation Game tries to satisfy both groups. To its credit, it largely succeeds, though not perfectly.

In my opinion, it shines more when focused on the specific wartime mystery of Enigma. It generates genuine awe and suspense as Turing slowly perfects a spectacular machine capable of almost instantaneous deciphering while contending with the disdain of his colleagues, waves of ill will set in motion by his own antisocial behavior. Blue-eyed and wiry Benedict Cumberbatch, perhaps the most improbable sex symbol our time, is a master at blending icy focus with poignant vulnerability. He creates men—detectives, journalists, mathematicians, problem solvers—who could almost be robots if it were not for the vivid sense of pure and disorderly humanity glinting through the severely regulated surface. This is another way of saying he is perfectly cast as Turing. Keira Knightley is a charming and warm presence as Joan, a whip-smart single girl who defies society's secretarial-pool expectations to become Turing's invaluable confidante. This is not the most complex character of her career, but she plays her with admirable brio, particularly nailing a scene in which an upset Joan describes her envelope-pushing vision of a domestic life built upon the electricity of shared minds rather than sex or a conventional concept of love. Cumberbatch and Knightley are aided by a prestigious roster of character actors both fresh-faced and well-established. The best among them is Mark Strong as Stewart Menzies, a smooth MI6 operative who understands Turing's potential and plays several spy games at once while expertly maintaining his crisp composure. This is a peripheral character who could headline his own film.

If the film falters, it is when it tries to dive into Alan Turing's personal life and homosexuality. Rightly or wrongly, it features no sex scenes. In fact, there is never any sense of the adult Turing desiring profound intimacy with another man; he registers as an intellectual asexual despite a few pained confessions of his orientation. Boarding-school memories of an almost fling with a sensitive pal feel shoehorned in and underdeveloped, as do framing-device glimpses of his post-war arrest. If Alan Turing, surely a victim of the prejudices of his time, is a 20th-century Homosexual Martyr, this respectable film flings itself toward the heart-wrenching implications of the second word while slightly shying away from depicting and honoring the first.

B+

Yeah, the whole homosexuality thing is shamefully glossed over. I mean not even a kiss? This is as safe as it can be in a post-Brokeback-Mountain-lost-the-Oscar-world.

Stirring, powerful and surprisingly entertaining, The Imitation Game delves into the life of Alan Turing and the rise of computer science with WWII enigma codebreaking. In one of the year's best performances, Benedict Cumberbatch is wonderful at displaying Turing's complexities and vulnerabilities. He is ably supported by a terrific Keira Knightley (as a fiery spitfire of a woman at a time when being a fiery spitfire of a woman wasn't particularly "useful" to anyone) and Matthew Goode. It's a conventional film in many ways, but with superb performances and first-rate filmmaking at the helm, it draws you in completely. A-

Um, this was mediocre at best. The direction is merely passable, some of the dialogue is horrendously cliched, and I thought Benedict Cumberbatch was...okay. The film strikes every chord in the "How to win an Oscar" handbook. It's just terribly unimaginative, and the parts of it that are meant to be suspenseful lack any real spark. Some of the other performances are pretty good, especially Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, and Mark Strong. The costumes and art direction are also well done, and the film had quite a polished look. Yet they managed to do to Alan Turing what the British government did to him: they chemically castrated him. The fact that he was persecuted for his sexuality is slightly unbelievable when the character is portrayed as an asexual alien. Benedict Cumberbatch is solid in the role, but at times his performance felt affected and inorganic. Overall, I say this was a big disappointment for me. C+/C

P.S. I could totally see this winning Best Picture.

This was actually great and a huge surprise for me. Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley were great here and more than deserving of the Oscar nominations they are sure to get. Though the subject matter is definitely heavy, it is an incredibly entertaining, fascinating and ultimately moving film.

A-

Benedict Cumberbatch's Turing is one of the least gay gay characters I have seen on film.

Eh, I thought the homosexual angle was more prominent than I thought based on what people said here, but I do think it could've been explored more, especially with the ending saying that many at the time were persecuted for it.

It's a very good film. Best Picture worthy? Nah. Cumberbatch is good but the other frontrunners for BA gave better performances. It's a very quick and entertaining watch but nothing I'd revisit anytime soon.

Agreed - that angle basically determined the course for the last half of the movie. It did play it safe in terms of what was shown, but it still played a big part.

Knowing very little of Alan Turing and his life, I thought this movie was quite excellent. Not sure how much of it was historically accurate, but it seems like an incredible story.

A-

I wonder how responsible real-life Detective Robert Nock (if that's a real person) feels for Turing's suicide.

not gay enough? what did you guys want, cumberbatch butt-fucking goode in the woods?

At least some salad-tossing.

if there was a sex scene with Matthew Goode I would've bumped up the grade, ya

Really enjoyed it.

A surprisingly very entertaining movie. Cumberbatch and Knightley are great.

9/10 (A-)

The gay stuff is totally out of left field and feels completely out of place and thrown in. The text at the end about gay arrests is just cringe worthy. Good movie, Cumberbatch and co. do a good job but this is obviously not Oscar material on any level.

Knightley I felt gave the only truly superb performance in the film. Cumberbatch is fine but nothing truly remarkable to warrant an Oscar nomination. The story itself is fine and is engaging enough (though the interweaving between timelines is a bit rough at times) but there is nothing here that sets it towards the top of the year consideration. Just good and nothing more.

A well-made film about the major accomplishment in Alan Turing's life. As I watched it, I was enthralled in the story. But a week later, I find myself forgetting it mostly, which isn't a good sign for longevity. As I've thought about it more, I can pinpoint certain weaknesses, not the least of which is The House Syndrome: like Dr. House, Turing comes to the crucial turning point of his code-cracking through an almost-inconsequential moment, seemingly grabbing the solution out of thin air thanks to a breezy exchange. The House Syndrome. He even gets the Hugh Laurie glossy-eyed look as he figures it all out.

Benedict Cumberbatch is great, though I found myself thinking he was channeling Jim Parsons' Sheldon throughout the movie. Keira Knightley is fun and suits the role perfectly, but I'm not sure if it's Oscar nominee-worthy.

I'm also conflicted on the gay subplot. I am all for progress on the subject. I don't think it's necessary to always include a big scene involving homosexuality in order to either shock the conservative types or break down barriers. But if you're going to tell a tragic story from his childhood, with what is presumed to be his first unofficial (or was it? The film doesn't bother to elaborate.) boyfriend, you have to flesh it out more. It felt more like "Well he was gay, so we need to gay it up a little but not in a threatening way." Either flesh it out or cut it. The in-between was distracting and pointless.

That all aside, it's still a strong story with a lot of neat historical facts, exaggerated or not, that make for a good movie. Just not a memorable one.

B

Loved it.

YEah I swear I got the gay aura from the first scenes of him as a child.

A

I agree with this. The movie was quite frustrating, going through all the motions of "how to make an Oscar friendly biopic." And then ultimately doing disservice to the fagginess of the character by just kind of mentioning his homosexuality a couple times.... like Renton said, he really came off as an asexual alien. When he comes out to Keira and she's like, "Yeah, I've had my suspicions...." how the fuck did she have any idea? I thought it more likely that he was fucking computers than other dudes. The whole gay thing is like a second thought at the end. And while the 'rest' of it, the Enigma cracking war stuff, was mildly entertaining, I couldn't shake the feeling that it was overwhelmingly by-the-book. Disappointing. (and yet my friends I watched it with thought it was "really good") B- / C+

This was a really great movie, much better than Boyhood and the Grand Budapest Hotel, the other best picture contenders I've seen. first of all the acting is great, especially Keira Knightley, who is totally deserving of her nomination. She is better than Patricia Arquette, though I have yet to see Birdman. The ending was just heartbreaking, and I was surprised it was able to make me feel for the characters in such a way. It was also exciting to watch them crack the code. Overall, ?I caqn see why this was a big Oscar contender.

A