The Imitation Game

I envy the people who will watch Benedict Cumberbatch for the first time in The Imitation Game. There may well be very few such people left in 2014 – because we seem to be in the Cumberbatch phase of human civilization. His turn as Alan Turing is a searing performance of extraordinary nuance and heartbreaking sensitivity, and he rises above the film and stands head and shoulders above his co-stars, many of whom are just along for the ride.

Its not fair to say that he is typecast – because he has picked roles across a range of subjects and characters. But the thing about Benedict Cumberbatch is that he cannot hide his brilliant intellect and radiance. There’s something about him that lends itself well to the eccentric geniuses he plays. In this film, he doesn’t portray the character as much as he inhabits it, with mannerisms, glances, and half-smiles, saying much more than the scope of his dialogue. One of my favorite moments in the movie is when Turing encounters a group of children on a train, and notices one boy sitting quietly, engrossed in his own task with utter disregard to the other boys cavorting around him. Turing’s remains outwardly aloof and indifferent, but he can’t hide his fleeting smile. At this point we haven’t yet learnt much about Turing’s own childhood, but with that smile, we know that he was much the same as he was growing up – a bit of a misfit.

If I’m raving too much about Benedict Cumberbatch and not enough about the movie, its not just because I am a staunch “Cumberbitch”. Its also because without him, the movie is simply functional. Held together well with a taut screenplay, a coterie of efficient actors and timely edits to interlace wartime footage with the movie at hand, the movie does a good job of bringing period detail and the important moments of Turing’s life to screen. But it rises above the ordinary purely on the strength of his performance.

There are two noteworthy aspects of the movie, though. Alexandre Desplat’s score, while reminiscent of the composer’s previous work, is wonderfully evocative and apt for the movie. The cinematography is beautiful too, capturing the lovely, muted light of the British countryside. Turing likes to go on long, gruelling runs, and there is a moment when he gazes into the horizon at the end of a particularly punishing stretch. Such moments are perfectly captured and one feels an affinity for the character that is beyond the empathetic performances.

One wishes the movie were a bit more aggressive though. While Turing’s personality is aloof to the point of being off-putting, many of the truths about his character are discovered off camera. For example, the fact that he has been soliciting sexual favors from men is flippantly thrown out by a policeman referring to the incident and calling him a pouf. The difficult decision he makes in choosing hormonal treatment over imprisonment, which ultimately leads to his tragic end, is also conveyed after the fact, albeit in a powerfully acted sequence from Cumberbatch.

The movie should garner him an Oscar nod, and perhaps he will win, except he has stiff competition from Steve Carrell for Foxcatcher. It is one of his most sensitive and tender portrayals of the many geniuses he has played.

My rating: 4/5