The Imitation Game

                   If for some odd reason Eddie Redmayne had not been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar this year (this would have been a travesty, by the way), I fully believe the award should have gone to Benedict Cumberbatch.  His work in The Imitation Game is absolutely fantastic, and had this film not come out the same year as The Theory of Everything, I’m sure Mr. Cumberbatch would have won quite a few awards.  He, and the rest of the cast, did such a beautiful job with this story.  They easily could have taken the story of a man who has long lived in the shadows and either glorified or vilified him, but instead did neither. They made him simply a man.  A genius, but a man all the same. 

                It’s World War II and the British military is desperately trying to figure out how to break Germany’s Enigma code.  They have hired a group of men to do this, but despite working all day, every day, the men are not having any luck.  It does not help that one of the men, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch), is refusing to work directly on the task of cracking the code.  Instead, Turing is working on a machine that will crack the code every day every time.  He sees that with the code constantly changing, they will always be behind if they continue to rely solely on human power and ability.  To stay ahead of the Germans, they need something more.

                At first no one is on board with Turing’s idea.  In fact, everyone is so against the idea Turing is forced to plea to Winston Churchill himself in order to get the funding and support he is looking for.  This alone upsets those around Turing, but when Turing is then put in charge of the entire project, that creates even greater discord.  Nobody actually likes Turing and they hate the thought of having to work for him.

                One of the first things Turing does as the person in charge is discard some team members and bring on new ones.  He runs a contest to find the best people possible and comes across Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley).  At first she is refused entry into the contest because of her gender, but Turing insists she sit down and be allowed a chance.  What is discovered is that Joan can complete the challenge before her faster than even Turing is able.  She is someone Turing has to have on his team, and he is willing to do pretty much anything to make that happen.      

                With the new team in place, they are finally able to crack Enigma.  The machine works just as Turing had in mind, but with the success comes an immediate dilemma.  They all realize that if they act too quickly on the Germans’ plans, the Germans will know Enigma has been crack and change their form of coded communication.  The British will be back where they started and everyone’s work will have been for nothing.  Instead, they must determine which actions should be acted upon and which they must remain silent.  In essence, Turing and his team are determining who lives and who dies.

                Of course everything Turing and his team are doing is top secret.  While this big of a secret would be enough for one person, Turing is forced to hold many others on his shoulders as well.  One is the identity of the Soviet spy in their midst.  He has been part of Turing’s team the entire time.  When Turing confronts the man, he is blackmailed into keeping quiet because the spy knows Turing has a secret of his own.  It is a secret that, if discovered, could lead to Turing losing everything he has ever worked for.

                There were so many heartbreaking parts in this film, starting with the scenes of Turing’s childhood.  The other boys at his school were so mean to him.  I mean really mean.  As in they buried him under the floorboards mean.  That was how horrible these boys were.  What made it worse was the teachers did not care one iota.  They simply stood by and let the abuse happen.  Fortunately for Turing, there was one person who cared.  It was another boy, Christopher (Jack Bannon), who would help Turing get out of the situations he was put in.  They explored code breaking together and talked to each other like friends.  Christopher was Turing’s only friend.   Sadly, the friendship came to an end very quickly because of circumstances beyond their control, but Christopher always remained part of Turing’s heart and life.

                Then there was all the trouble Turing got into for his sexuality.  At the time homosexuality was illegal, and when Turing’s orientation was discovered, he was forced to choose between prison or drugs intended to change his sexuality.  Turing chose the drugs and was forced to deal with horrendous side effects.  The drugs affected his mind and Turing was unable to do the work he so desperately wanted to do.  On the drugs Turing struggled to do anything.  His great mind was lost, and all because the law could not see past his sexuality.                                     

                Now, I’m not saying Turing was perfect.  It’s pretty clear right away he is not.  His social skills were lacking (which with his childhood I’m not surprised) and he had the habit of dismissing people.  This made for a hostile work environment which would have stayed that way had it not been for Joan.  She taught Turing how to get along with people and have them want to work with him.  In my opinion, had Joan not come along, Enigma may have never been cracked because they other men disliked Turing so much they would not have helped him with the project.  It is Joan who helped put everyone and everything together and she became great friends with Turing in the process.  They had their ups and downs, but in the end Joan and Turing always supported each other when they needed it most, whether Turing wanted to admit that fact or not. 

                Despite all the difficult moments, this is a beautiful film. The acting was fantastic and I found myself sucked into the story right away. There were some time hops that had I not been paying attention could have been confusing, but they always got straightened out pretty quickly. I found the story of how Enigma came to be broken absolutely fascinating, especially since it’s not one I knew much about. It was also great to see the people behind the code breaking. We were able to see all the work they did and how much of a difference they made in the war. The film may have primarily been about Alan Turing, but in the end, it brought many people’s work and accomplishments out of the shadows. No longer did they have to live in secret with what they had done. Instead they could be honored as they should be.