Saturday at the Movies: The Imitation Game (2014)

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Every Saturday night on WrongPlanet.net, a discussion will ensue about a selected autism-related film. Please, take care to avoid spoilers (or, at least, flag them) to prevent potential viewers from learning too much about the story in advance of their viewing. Tonight’s selected film is:

The Imitation Game (114 minutes), a 2014 American historical drama thriller film directed by Morten Tyldum, with a screenplay by Graham Moore loosely based on the biography Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges (previously adapted as the stage play and BBC drama Breaking the Code). It stars Benedict Cumberbatch as real-life British cryptanalyst Alan Turing, who decrypted German intelligence codes for the British government during World War II. The DVD and Blu-ray versions of the film were released in 2015. Scenes from the film are available for viewing on YouTube under the search term The Imitation Game.

Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain’s top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

If you have viewed this film, what are your opinions about it?

I enjoyed said film. I think that the portrayal of Turing was gentle and brilliant. This ASD traits were not overplayed, which was a relief for me. I found the ending sad, but in an exquisitely beautiful way.

The epilogue was also sad and happy at once, which was confusing, but enjoyable.

And, the soundtrack is amazing!

I thought this was a solid film, but it was a tad forgettable. I would have preferred more in depth characterization of Turing and side characters.

Yes. We weren't invited to see Turing in his own life (not his professional life) with his family, his friends and his coworkers beyond some flashback scenes and the occasional disagreement. The script seemed to me to be checking the boxes off scene-by-scene. Buuut, the story could probably have been just as interesting if it was portrayed by the Muppets. The story: Great -- the portrayals: Very good -- the script: Meh!

Ha! A muppet version of The Imitation Game would have been great.

I think the film was done so by the numbers because it had to focus enough on the amazing achievements of Turing to justify his differences. And keep people interested in the movie. I don't think a more character-focused film would have been as popular.

It also has great accents. I really enjoy listening to people who have accents.

Music is good, too.

The acting by Benjamin C. was really good but IMHO as a techie it just felt poorly written / executed - I mean as I recall (and I only saw it once during its theatrical run) it almost made it seem as if these guys didn't know what they were doing, more like "well, why don't we keep re-wiring the machine and hope it eventually works?".

In any case its not a non-fiction work but I rather found Neal Stephensons "Cryptonomicon" novel a lot more interesting and it features Turing as a character there, and goes a bit more in depth into the type of stuff Turing and the fictional characters in the book were doing.

I especially liked the acting performed by Charles Dance who portrayed Commander Denniston. It was fun to watch the character transition from loathing the upstart Turing to protecting him when and where he could.

I have seen it 3 times, all on aeroplane flights. I watched it two time head to tail going to visit my relatives, and once on the way back. I could not hear very well, which was annoying, but I still liked it a lot.