The Imitation Game
- Braden Turk
- Jun 3, 2015
- 2 min read
Based on a true story, “The Imitation Game” is a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, and the director is Morten Tyldum. It follows the story of a man trying to break the Nazi enigma code with the help of other code breakers during WW2.
Though, in all honesty, that isn’t what the film is about at its core. Benedict Cumberbatch’s character (Alan Turing) is gay, which would be fine if it weren’t for the time period. At this time in Europe, homosexual people would be chemically castrated if their sexuality was found out. This fact is what makes the title of this film so brilliant: the title “The Imitation Game” refers to how Alan imitates a straight man during a time when his true nature was illegal. In short, “The Imitation Game” gives two roads to its story, which is a rare treat if you take into account other films nowadays.
Of course, to help support a good and thought-out character, a good actor needs to be paired. In that case, the question is this: does Benedict deliver? To answer that: he excels. Benedict Cumberbatch exceeds so well in portraying his character that I can’t imagine anyone else playing the role. Benedict himself, during one of the final scenes, had a breakdown on set due to how much he got into his own character. Also, props need to be given to supporting actors as well, for their roles (Keira Knightley’s especially) are properly portrayed. The film also looks very nice, with good lighting, proper shots, and just a good color palette (all courtesy of director Morten Tyldum).
As for flaws, the landscape seems pretty bare: the first flaw deals with how for the first part of the film, there are some distracting cuts to the future. The second flaw deals with war-scene cuts that are spread throughout. The CGI featured in these particular scenes looks incredibly cheap, and they sadly take you briefly out of an otherwise completely enticing film.
8/10- “The Imitation Game” is a, for the most part, completely enticing film that delivers with a layered story, well-written characters, great acting, and lush directing.
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