The Unsung Hero

Oooh, Cumberbitches – our boy is so going to the Oscars next year.

As a nominee, natch.

So I finally saw Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game, and lemme just say it: Wow.

Directed by Norwegian helmer Morten Tyldum (Headhunters), Cumberbatch delivers a career-high performance as Alan Turing, the Father of Computer Science and one of, if not the unsung hero of World War II.

Turing, y’ see, was the brilliant British mathematician – and more – who cracked the German “Enigma Code” and, thus, the ordinary man (well...the guy was quite the genius) that played an extraordinary role in ensuring that the war went the way of the Allies instead of that of the Nazis. He also was one the thousands of men who were prosecuted in England at the time for being gay. Convicted of “gross indecency” post-war, he endured a year of chemical castration treatments (his choice over prison) before committing suicide, at the age of 41, in 1954.

FYI: Turing received a posthumous royal pardon last year.

It must be said and not just alluded to: the Cumber-stud embodies the heck outta Turing. The actor clearly was/is passionate about the remarkable man he got to portray on the silver screen, having gone on the record to say that the only pardon that should exist should be one coming from Turing himself for that which was done to him.

Alas, that was never possible, and it obviously isn’t possible.

Lest you think it, The Imitation Game isn’t a quote-unquote gay film. But it is a celebration of a (gay) man. (At least, it very well should be.)

Perhaps echoing the albeit modern-day sentiment that a person is not just who s/he sleeps with, screenwriter Graham Moore has devised a story structure that unfolds like a spy thriller. Granted, the real-life events upon which the film is based were just that: after all, eccentric-prodigy Turing was a regular, “simple” chap recruited into service of king and country by a suffers-no-fools old-school commander (Charles Dance, whom you’ll know as Tywin Lannister from HBO’s Game of Thrones), to work with a group of fellow, all-rather-smart civilians that included chess champion Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode, from TV’s The Good Wife), Turing’s charismatic polar opposite.

That – being smart enough to help the Allies win the war – is what Turing did and, indeed, a great part of who he was. Nevertheless, Tyldum & Co. elegantly delve into the more secretive aspect of his being, and that is what gives this film its epic scope. Without Turing, millions more would have died, more cities would have been leveled, and the world might be a much different place.

Keira Knightley is featured in the film as Joan Clarke. She was the only woman admitted into the task force, and, more importantly, Turing’s closest confidante. She serves as our proxy to understanding Turing in ways no one else around him genuinely did or tried to; as depicted in the film, their relationship was as simple (she knew him) as it could have been complicated (she could have resented him for sort of leading her on, romantically speaking – but she did not).

No. The Imitation Game is an everyman film. It is the story of man – as it is repeated throughout the film – no one imagined anything of but who went and did the thing that no one could imagine. It is a yarn worth spinning and spun really well to boot.

My only gripe is – gasp! – with Cumberbatch’s acting. Much like he does on the BBC/PBS joint Sherlock, he makes unlikeable incredibly likable. However, there are a couple of instances there toward the end where I can see him acting.

I know, I know. That is what he is doing....

But look. He does do a superb job in the film.

All I’m sayin’ is I just wish I hadn’t noticed him coloring between certain lines is all. It was kinda like seeing wires on a ballerina. It betrayed the achievement.

My Rating ***1/2

Photo: FlicksAndBits.com.