Peneflix MOVIE REVIEWS BY PENEFLIX
Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as the solitary, mathematical genius Alan Turing is stratospheric; his every nuance, prophetic stuttering, gleaning gesture resonate with profound empathy for a man whose intellect changed the world, saved countless lives, accomplished the “unimaginable”.
Based on Turing’s book “The Enigma” the film faithfully follows his scrupulous mission at Britain’s Bletchley Park (members of MI6 and Government Code and Cypher School) with fellow brainiacs “Hugh Alexander” (caddishly charming Matthew Goode) and “Joan Clark” (Keira Knightly glows with intelligence and nobility) plus a myriad of other wise men; secrecy surrounds their formidable task of cracking “Enigma”, Germany’s destructive, annihilating radio code during WWII. Appointed by Winston Churchill to head the mission Turing painstakingly constructs “Christopher” a monolithic machine,(forerunner of today’s computer) destined to decipher the impenetrable German “enigma”. “The Imitation Game” without sensationalism blatantly displays the colossal tension of government enforced deadlines; heated differences between the team whose enormous egos and I.Q’s threaten the success of the project.
The penetrating, brilliant core of the film is the portrait of a man whose genius was the source of inimitable pain; isolated, peerless, Turing’s sole intellectual equal, only friend (Christopher) dies in secondary school; Turning sours, becomes an irascible, misanthropic adult; numbers, puzzles, answers; flexibility, anathema; his loneliness is heart- wrenching, staggeringly sad. Benedict Cumberbatch captures the man, his torturous, illegal proclivities in the mid-twentieth century; he brought to life a master of mathematics, pioneering computer scientist, philosopher; unparalleled, a man worthy of awe, not derision; a man to be heralded in perpetuity.
FIVE STARS!!!!!
Peneflix
Delighted to see your 5 stars for this film, Peneflix! It is first on my list “to see”. Thank you for another outstanding review!
Inspirational! You will love it! P.
Pen, I can not wait to see this, and you making me even more full of anticipatory glee, Does Cumberbatch have the oscar in the bag do you think? I hope so.
No. This year the best actor category is challenging: Eddie Redmayne seems to be the frontrunner. Academy loves the physically taxing roles (Patty Duke “The Miracle Worker; Daniel Day Lewis “My Left Foot”: the subtlety of Cumberbatch’s performance is staggering; might not be enough for “Oscar”. Happy New Year. P.
You are probably right. Oscar does love that stuff. While, to be fair, Daniel Day Lewis was incandescent as Christy Brown and almost doesn’t deserve to hampered by being lumped in with such gems as Jane Wyman in ‘Johnny Belinda’ there is … shall we say … a pattern there. I liked ‘The Theory of Everything’ perhaps I am temperamentally too curmudgeonly to be as uplifted by it as some.
What about Michael Keaton? Tom Hardy? Timothy Spall?
Did not care for “Birdman” but Keaton’s scene with the critic was sensational. No one saw “Locke” and I will be viewing/reviewing Mr. Turner in a couple of days. Happy Holidays, P.
I recall that you were not impressed by ‘Birdman’ (for the record I really was, audacious filmmaking), but what’s always interesting to speculate about is the hive-mind of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. I have found that Oscar speculation is most prophetical when I am able to put my own preferences aside.
I’m not sure that it matters that no one but you and I saw ‘Locke’; Hardy is placed to be a massive super-nova of a star (after ‘Mad Max’) and a nomination (not a win) might be an easy way to make the Academy seem more ‘with-it’ than they actually are.
I’ll save my long discursive remarks about Keaton for another day, but in the short version he takes it over the Englishmen who syphon off each others’ votes.