Something about the direction/screenplay/acting felt too stiff to me but I appreciate how they were more ambitious thematically than Oscar bait like this typically is. The reasons for Turing's repressed homosexuality and Joan's also reserved nature and inner resentments about how her family and society treats her, intersects thematically with the cryptology obsession of messages in locked codes. Turing writes a paper about computers thinking, while he himself feels like the computer in a room full of human beings, devoid of the open emotional connection and normalcy you're supposed to have. Turing feels motivated as much as anything by the need to reach his full potential or else he's failed, like how he's obsessed with seeing how far he can take the Christopher machine until he dies. Joan is able to go on to a normal life after Bletchley, but Turing goes to his grave as a code neither he or society figured out the right settings to unlock in time

Nice analysis Shack, was a good read!

zwackerm, I enjoyed The Imitation Game as well, but I can't call it better than Boyhood and The GBH. Those also had great acting, and of the 3 I enjoyed Boyhood the most actually. But none of these movie are with my best of the year. Don't think I'll ever give them a re-watch, and aside from Boyhood, would still remember them a few years from now. The Imitation game is a very good movie, but just not more than that.

I hardly ever rewatch Oscar movies years down the line, unless they blow me away

I imagine it's just a few then, which Oscar movies do blow you away?

Black Swan, Gravity, Chicago, Return of the King, Silver Linings Playbook, Les Miserables, Gone Girl (should have been at least) to name a few.

Nice, for those I've seen I agree, aside from Chicago. That also falls in the Imitation Game category for me (B+)

The Imitation Game

Solid and enjoyable World War II drama, if nothing spectacular (especially from a technical perspective). Not worthy of any awards, though it did make me appreciate Keira Knightley all over again (yes, I used to love her back in the early days). Cumberbatch was good, I guess, but his character is an absolute jerk, which makes the needless third act homo storyline quite challenging. The film could have done with more scenes of war, and I would have appreciated more time on showing examples of how "Christopher" actually helped save people's lives (plus more footage of real wartime news). The cast was made of some industry veterans which was nice. Charles Dance and Mark Strong are the obvious ones, but Steven Waddington was the one that I appreciated seeing the most. So overall it is a good wartime piece, but could have done without the humour, and the homosexuality plotline. I'd have preferred a World War II drama over the Alan Turing biopic that we got -- we didn't see one Nazi, and they didn't do enough to make the German presence strong enough to just show one side.

B

I enjoyed this a lot, it's a very good movie. It's build-up is really good, but once they've cracked the code, the film loses it's vigor, and it's because about the story behind the man, and I've actually found that not so interesting.

The score in the beginning is also very powerful, but through the third act that loses meaning as well.

It's for sure one of the better movies of 2014, and you could consider it an Oscar blockbuster of sorts actually.

Matthew Goode was very good in this too.

B+

What isn't Matthew Goode good in? I enjoyed him here too.

The Imitation Game is a nicely filmed telling of the Turing story, but it ended up being a very shallow treatment of a complex subject. Also I'm tired of Cumberbatch being in every movie - here he goes full Spock - yawn. *B*



Personally, I found that the earlier docudrama 'Codebreaker' offered a much deeper and more affecting understanding of Turing.