Friday Film :The Imitation Game – film review

There is no audio or visual footage of Alan Turing, so there was nothing with which I could personalise him. I had to do that from my imagination and the research about him generally.’

At the press conference for The Imitation Game, Benedict Cumberbatch not only explained how he created the character he plays but questioned why Turing is not on the cover of science text books and why his achievements have been overlooked for so long.

They won’t be from now. The Imitation Game is poised for awards glory in the coming months. Cumberbatch himself is likely to be a strong contender for best actor.

The film itself is a very British kind of thriller, albeit directed by a Norwegian, Morten Tylden. Starring a host of Brit actors who shine in period drama it is the race against time story of how Turing cracked the Germans’ enigma code at Bletchley Park in 1939.

At the press conference the cast refused to label Turing as possibly autistic. They emphasised, instead, his individuality, his outsider status and this view of him is condensed in the oft repeated mantra in the film that: “Sometimes it is the people whom no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

The Imitation game will both play well with audiences and deservedly win major awards. Well worth seeing.