Thanks to www.showfilmfirst.com for letting me see the sneak preview of The Imitation Game last week, a full month before it goes on general release. See my review for further details. 

Choder 

The Imitation Game (2014): Imagining a secret individual.

The Imitation Game dramatises the life of Alan Turing, the mathematical genius who helped to crack the secret German Enigma code during the second world war. Within this familiar tale, Director Morten Tyldum attempts, with some success, to make a stand for the inspirational individual, as well as revealing the secrets both within us all and all around us. It features a line-up of British acting talent including the fully-fledged Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing; Keira Knightley as the only female code breaker (and unlikely fiancé to Turing); Mark Strong at slippery, eel-like Stewart Menzies, Head of MI6 and Charles Dance as the headmasterish Cdr. Alastair Denniston

Given that many of the core elements of this story are well-known (the role of the code breakers at Bletchley Park, Turing’s homosexuality, his standing as the father of modern computing, his tragic death), it is a credit to director Morten Tyldum (best known for Headhunters, the highest-grossing Norwegian film of all time) that he is able to look beyond this by emphasising the social and moral challenges which Turing faced as a result of the fundamental differences within his mind and the responsibility which came as a result of the successful breaking of the code. This was a man who could envisage a machine that outthought the human mind, but was unable to deduce the subtleties that form the code of human communication. His difficulties interacting with others form a strong part of the film, but in such a way as to emphasise the fact that these complexities are taken for granted in ‘typical’ people, rather than ridiculing Turing for his continued puzzlement at how other people can predict the behaviour of those around them. It is also a celebration of the distinctiveness of people; as is quoted many times during the film: “Sometimes it's the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine”. It therefore works as more than simply a depiction of a clandestine part of British history, providing inspiration, and insight to anyone who has met an ‘Alan’ at some point in their lives.

Turing’s homosexuality is not probed in great detail, but becomes just another in a long list of secrets which are apparent in both his work and life. The ‘secret within a secret’ of knowing the Enigma code, but not letting on to the Germans, is expertly handled; revealing that many of the allied decision makers, with a less calculating mind than Turing’s, had to make rational, but hideous decisions about which individuals lived or died.

Many of the issues raised by the film have echoes in contemporary life 60 years later. The suspicious and intrusive nature of Turing’s eventual conviction for a consensual homosexual act mirrors the current obsession with the private lives of individuals, although it was driven by the law 60 years ago, rather than the mass media of today. The idea that there are billions of hidden messages ‘in plain sight’ being sent by the Axis powers, ready to be plucked from the air by whoever can interpret them correctly, echoes the current wave of internet conspiracy theories which seek to interpret meaning from information freely available in the public domain if only you know how to interpret them.

Although the intentions of the film are high, it can be somewhat ham-fisted and jarring in execution at times. The aforementioned use of the ‘imagine’ line THREE times which makes an appealing epigram less interesting and ‘enigmatic’ than it should have been; the flashbacks to Turing’s bullied school days and flash-forward to his arrest in 1951 don’t add anything to the atmosphere and get in the way of the Bletchley narrative, furthermore there is no subtlety and a lack of perceived audience intelligence in the way these intrusions are signposted by the script: at one point, one of his fellow code breakers prophetically states, “you must have been popular at school” leading directly (you guessed it) into a scene of Turing back at said school. The flashbacks are only saved by the wonderful imitation job that newcomer Alex Lawther does of Cumberbatch imitating Turing.

With such an intriguing and significant historical event, with a real-life set of asymmetric personalities, it is inevitable that this film doesn't manage to cover all the nuances of Alan Turing’s life or the remarkable story in which he took part. The fact that it still manages to be enthralling despite the well-known ending and without dwelling on the more sensational aspects of his life makes it a film which will fascinate a wide audience.