“Are you paying attention?”

Director: Morten Tyldum

Screenplay: Graham Moore

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Charles Dance, Allen Leech, Mark Strong

Rating: 4/5

T_he Imitation Game _is the story of Alan Turing, a story that most Imperial student probably knows. He is the father of computing, the man who helped end the Second World War an estimated two years earlier by cracking the enigma code saving millions of lives in the process. But he is also the man who was arrested for homosexuality, was sentenced with indecency, forced do undergo chemical castration in an attempt to ‘cure’ him, and ultimately committed suicide at the age of forty.

Biopics such as this one are currently one of the hottest things in the film industry, with Mr Turner, _The Imitation Game _and The Theory of Everything all being released in relatively quick succession. They are a difficult genre to get right, needing a subject that is well known enough to get interest from the public, and a story that is interesting enough to fill an hour and a half. The Imitation Game is just the right sort of film, by parts hopeful and heartbreaking, and completely engaging.

The role of Turing is taken by Benedict Cumberbatch, in what is easily his best role to date. Taking inspiration from his days as Sherlock, he brings this fascinating man to life. From his interview at the beginning, through his work on breaking the Enigma Code, through to the end of his life, he is flawless. His portrayal is so wonderful, that the family of Turing have said that they cannot imagine anyone else playing the role. It will be surprising if Cumberbatch does not get his first Oscar nomination for this role.

The other characters are less impressive, the acting is solid, but with so much time understandably being spent on Turing, you don’t really get a chance to get to know anyone else. Charles Dance as Commander Denniston feels particularly wasted, only really being there to get in the way and make things more difficult for the leads.

As for the “Superheroes in tank tops and tweeds”, as Matthew Beard (who played the youngest of the codebreakers – Peter Hilton) called the codebreakers, you have Matthew Goode as Hugh Alexander pulling off both arrogant and charming with equal aplomb and Beard as the first of the characters to make me burst into tears. It’s just a shame that you didn’t get to see more of them.

The only major problem with the casting was Keira Knightly as Turing’s one time fiancée Joan Clarke. Knightly has a long history of being typecast as upper class women with startlingly posh accents. The problem is, she’s never been very good at this, and manages to make the only non-Turing character that gets any major screen time into someone who is bland and, for someone who actually existed, seem like a plot convenience.

Visually, the film is stunning, managing to capture the feel of war era Britain. The first time you meet Turing he is walking through a train station full of children being sent off as refugees. It’s such an iconic image that it immediately sets the scene.

It is Christopher, the machine they build at Bletchley Park to crack the code, that is most impressive. Based on the original still at Bletchley (though admittedly made slightly larger with more of the mechanisms on the outside to make it look more cinematically appealing), it gives you a sense of the scale of what they were try to build.

Less impressive are the special effects, with the aeroplanes and bombs looking terribly fake. But then again, this isn’t really the sort of film that you expect them to be good. Alexandre Desplat’s score is also excellent, gently reminding you how you should be feeling. Never does it get in the way or get too loud and overbearing, it just sits subtly in the background prodding your emotions.

Overall, The Imitation Game is a wonderful, if heartwrenching, film proved by the fact that it made me cry not once, but three separate times. Cumberbatch is impossible to look away from, and this is one performance that shouldn’t be missed.