Review:
The
Imitation Game is an excellent look at a brilliant man who made enormous
contributions to our free world only to be tragically brought down by hatred, fear
and intolerance (and then subsequently forgotten in time).
The film is about Alan Turing, a mathematician
and logician who is worked with the British armed forces and MI6 decoding the
German Enigma machine, thereby giving the allies a great advantage during WWII
(and saving millions of lives, if not the world). More specifically, the film
is split into three sections. One that looks at Turing during boarding school
as a teenager and a key relationship that shaped his life. Another that looks
at Turing’s time at Bletchley Park, cracking the code with his team that
included Joan Clarke and Hugh Alexander. And the third that looks at Turing’s
life a few years later when it comes out that he is a homosexual to the public.
He is given a choice: prison or chemical castration, as his sexual orientation
was illegal under British law. He decides to take the drugs, fearing he will
not be able to do his work in prison.
The Imitation Game works very
well on multiple levels. Chiefly, it is an excellent character drama about an
outsider trying to find his place in a society that does not seem to want him,
built around the fantastic performances, especially from the film’s leads. It also
plays very well as a WWII thriller, as the team works against the clock to
break the code, directly contributing to the allies winning the war in Europe.
Director
Morten Tyldum does
a good job with both these aspects of the narrative. The character work, in
particular, is quite powerful. Tyldum, along with the actors, does a very good
job ingratiating the characters. The audience cares deeply about Turing (and
Clarke) and wants to see him succeed. Tyldum has a difficult job, actually,
with making Turing likable. For starters, he is an outsider who seems arrogant and
unsociable. Plus, the audience has likely never heard of him despite his
considerable contribution to the war effort and math. There is no built-in
appeal; thus, the likability of the character falls completely on the
performance and narrative. To this end, the performance is wonderful and Tyldum
caters the narrative to make Turing also appear very vulnerable, allowing the
audience to side with him. Turing resonates because the narrative and
performance allow him to emote and showcase his feelings. The audience
understands him and what he wants and thus sides with him.
Tyldum also uses the narrative to
create supporting characters to promote Turing as well. Clarke is incredibly
likable, as is Alexander. Clarke likes Turing almost right off the bat (and
seeing him give her a chance, recognizing his own life struggles in her
situation, also endears him to the audience) and Alexander comes around. They
are likable and they support and like Turing, which subconsciously also allows
the audience to like Turing (because they like Clarke and Alexander). Tyldum creates
a great personal villain for Turing in Commander Denniston as well (though, how
much of this is based in reality is unknown; but in terms of him being an antagonist
for Turing, he works well). Denniston is so dismissive of Turing, seeming to
have a personal vendetta against him that by nature the audience takes Turing’s
side. It also helps that Turing is balking in the face of authority. That is a
very relatable reaction in all of us (whether we get to express it as much as
we want to or not).
With great characters
established, Tyldum turns his attention to cracking the Engima for much of the
second act. The film then becomes as much a thriller as a character piece.
Tyldum excels here. The film is gripping and paced very well. Turing and his
(ragtag) team (of sorts) work against the clock (both the very real one – as more
British soldiers die each day fighting the Germans and the narrative one, as
Denniston wants to shut down Turing and his project – a machine he is building
to crack the code). Here, Tyldum turns the film into a basic puzzle solving
thriller, hitting all the right narrative beats.
Through the first two acts, The Imitation
Game could be taken as a feel-good character drama, but the third act reveals
it as a tragedy. Turing did solve the Enigma machine and he did aid the allies
in winning the war maybe more so than any other individual. Yet, his story is
ultimately a very sad one. Turing’s story becomes all the more important and
socially relevant today because of what he faced in his personal life.
In the early 1950s he was
chemically castrated by the British Government; and subsequently, he committed
suicide a few years later while self-administrating the pills designed to take
away his homosexual urges. Even today in Britain and America, far too many gay
and lesbian people are not given equal rights, harassed and told that they are
less because of their sexual orientation. Turing, by all accounts, was a war
hero and yet that did not change anyone’s mind about humiliating him and
destroying his life (the Queen of England did not even pardon him until
2013!!!). Over sixty years later, things seem to be getting better, but the
fact that we still do not have equal rights for all people is just sad. And,
with the radicalization of the Republican party here in America (to be honest,
Republicans are not really Republicans anymore; what the Republican party
stands for has been warped and shifted so far to the right that I cannot
believe that Republicans even want to be associated with the utter hatefulness
and ignorance of the party today; it is disgusting – but not to digress too
much), there is fear that maybe there is a social shift away from progress (a
shift away from a world of equality and tolerance – you know things that
America stands for, yet not enough people actually practice). Turing’s story is
yet another rallying cry against hate, fear and prejudice – a rallying cry for
personal and social freedom to be the people we are. Imagine what Turing could
have accomplished in a world that fully accepted him.
The third act is emotionally
effective, as Tyldum showcases the downfall of Turing as a result of taking his
mandated pills. He becomes a shadow of his former self. Tyldum also uses Clarke
very effectively here as well. Seeing her reaction to the state of Turing makes
the emotional resonance of the drama all the more powerful.
The Imitation Game is a brilliant
film. Alan Turing is a figure who we should all know about – his contribution
to the world and the tragedy of his story. Tyldum balances the different
narrative goals of the film very well, making a film that is compelling in
every regard.
Technical,
aesthetic & acting achievements: Morten Tyldum became a much
in-demand director with the breakout success internationally of his great
thriller
Headhunters.
The Imitation Game is his first English-language film. I think it is even
better. Tyldum has a knack for both character and narrative. I look forward to
his future films.
Aesthetically, The Imitation Game
is beautifully put together.
Alexandre
Desplat’s score is wonderful, capturing both the gravity of Britain at war
and the tension of desperately trying to solve the Enigma machine puzzle as
well as the jovial spirit of scientific discovery shared between the people
working to crack the code. It is a playful yet moving score. Desplat, again,
has given us many of the film’s best music this year (also scoring
Unbroken,
Godzilla
and
The
Grand Budapest Hotel).
Oscar Faura’s
cinematography is great as well. The drastic visual difference between Turing’s
WWII years and the years after, the muted color palate in the latter,
exemplifies the tragedy of his story.
Maria Djurkovic’s
production design is very good too. The film looks and feels very natural, even
though it is a period piece. Her set design also showcases Turing begin shunned
by society through his apartment in the years after WWII. It is a cluttered
mess.
The cast is fantastic.
Tuppence
Middleton,
Mark
Strong,
Charles
Dance,
Allen
Leech, and
Rory
Kinnear are all very good in small supporting roles.
Matthew Goode
is also very good in a small supporting role as Hugh Alexander (the multiple
British chess champion and part of Turing’s team). Goode is wonderfully good at
playing charming characters and Alexander is no different. His performance is
quite endearing and goes a long way to making Turing likable.
Alex Lawther
is quite good as Turing as a teenager. He is able to convey the emotional
turmoil that shaped Turing, which is a key narrative component to the film as a
whole.
Keira
Knightley is wonderful as Joan Clarke. She brings a lot of energy and charm
to a film dominated by male characters. She lights up all of her scenes and she
has brilliant chemistry with
Benedict
Cumberbatch. In a year in which she has had four films come out in theaters
(
Jack
Ryan,
Begin
Again and
Laggies
being the other three), she has given an array of great performances, but her
work in The Imitation Game is her best of the year. She looks utterly heartbroken
when she finds Turing a man crippled by the drugs he is forced to take and the
knowledge that society does not accept him. Her performance in this moment
breaks the hearts of the audience as well. Cumberbatch is spellbinding as
Turing. He perfectly captures the conflict of being utterly brilliant but
having a tough time socializing (to some extent, his work on
Sherlock
does inform his performance here, as they are similarly stylized characters).
Cumberbatch captures Turing’s heroism and pain as well. He has the courage to
think of the greater good when most of us would be selfish. To see him broken
in the end, it is tragic.
Summary
& score: The Imitation Game is simply a biopic, telling the story of
a remarkable man – however Alan Turing’s story is not just about how he saved
the world, it is also about how our ‘civilized’ world destroyed him because it perceived
him as being different. His story is a cry for change – change we are still
fighting for. 9/10
