The Imitation Game

director: Morten Tyldum
year: 2014
with: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Allen Leech, Matthew Goode, etc.

plot: Based on the real life story of legendary cryptanalyst Alan Turing, the film portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team of code-breakers at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

what I liked: Cumberbatch plays the troubled and vulnerable Alan Turing as brilliantly as he always does when it comes to socially awkward characters - sometimes you just want to hug and protect him. The line-up of handsome actors doesn't hurt as well...

what I didn't like: ...so not even Keira Knightley can spoil it with her equine smile. As the film focuses so much on Turing the historical dimensions of the Enigma code and WWII get shoved to the side too much. His biography gets reduced to flashbacks displaying his relationship to his schoolfriend Christopher, more we don' t know get to know. Itis a bit half-hearted as it hovers between a historical film and a biopic.

verdict: More the tragic life of one exceptional man than an historical film. This narrow focus lets Cumberbatch shine but cuts out so much that I left cinema a little bit disenthraled..
A bit too conventional for my taste, felt reminded of "A beautiful mind".