The Imitation Game

'The Imitation Game': Movie review  

Story of the English math genius, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, who helped win World War II is solidly done but might have been better with a less conventional approach

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, November 24, 2014, 3:12 PM

There’s an algorithm for making an Oscar-ready prestige picture — and “The Imitation Game” follows it obsessively. With a committed Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead and awards-savvy producer Harvey Weinstein steering the campaign, this polished, poignant biopic may well earn the success it clearly seeks.

Ultimately, though, director Morten Tyldum’s conventional approach doesn’t do full justice to his tragically unconventional hero.

As played by Cumberbatch, English mathematician Alan Turing is a man fated by the timing of his birth. Ferociously brilliant, possibly autistic and definitely gay, Turing is charged with saving the war-ravaged country that considers him an abomination.

The film starts in 1952 but it quickly flashes back to 1938, when Turing was called in to crack the German Enigma code. With the code being changed daily, it has been impossible to gain any traction.

Turing immediately antagonizes his new colleagues (overseen by a charismatic Matthew Goode), who are equally put off by his arrogance, intense intelligence and idea for a proto-computer he thinks could solve their problem. Only Joan Clarke (an underused Keira Knightley) respects his outsider perspective. With her help, he finally persuades the establishment to look beyond established methods.

Cumberbatch specializes in emotionally detached geniuses, and there’s no doubting his skill and his innate empathy for Turing. But there’s a meticulous self-awareness to this portrayal that has been absent from his previous performances. When we watch him as Sherlock Holmes, we simply see the great detective. Here, we see Benedict Cumberbatch working very hard to play Alan Turing.

Similarly, Tyldum and screenwriter Graham Moore seem to be using the Oscar-approved method of “The King’s Speech”: stately, straightforward filmmaking.

But Turing’s story was impossibly messy. The heartbreaking betrayals and ironies of his existence — the man who saved Britain only to be betrayed by her — deserve more than well-meant platitudes.

Fortunately, Tyldum and Cumberbatch demonstrate enough compassion and sincerity to give us a respectable imitation of an extraordinary life.

structure:

who: Benedict Cumberbatch

what: Story of the English math genius, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, who helped win World War II is solidly done but might have been better with a less conventional approach

when: 2014

where: not given

how: not given

websites:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/imitation-game-movie-review-article-1.2022089

keywords:

1.algorithm 算法

2.prestige 威望;聲譽

3.savvy 機靈

4.steer 操舵

5.poignant 悽美的

6.biopic 傳記片

7.ferociously 兇猛地

8.abomination 厭惡

9.traction 牽引

10.antagonize 對抗

11.detached 超然的

12.meticulous 細緻的

13. filmmaking 電影

14. platitude 老生常談