My last review of the year goes
to 'The Imitation Game,' based on the true story of how British mathematician
Alan Turing and a handful of other code-breakers broke the infamous German "Enigma"
code. Considered to be unbreakable in its time due
to its 159 trillion possible permutations and the short timeframe the
code-breakers had to work with before having to start all over again thanks to the daily
changing of keys, the effort to break the "Enigma Code" is one of
those untold stories of World War II that many people - like yours truly - find
endlessly fascinating.
In what may very well be his best
performance to date, Benedict Cumberbatch got his eccentric genius act down to
a 't' as Alan Turing. All the usual stereotypes
about geniuses are evident in his portrayal of Turing: socially awkward, little
sense of humor, intensely focused, logical to a fault, flawed but
brilliant. We've seen it all before in
movies like 'A Beautiful Mind,' but Cumberbatch infuses his character with so
much charisma and intensity that he single-handedly elevates the movie above a
simple biopic set during WWII. Keira Knightley
also shined in her role as Joan Clarke, a genius of a woman herself who's trying to
fit into a man's world and serving as "ying" to Turing's "yang."
Engrossing, well written and
filled with period flavor and detail, 'The Imitation Game' is a great story
about a group of unsung heroes of WWII whose contributions only came to light
50 years after the end of the Second World War.
And with this I thank you for visiting and wish you all a happy (and
prosperous) 2015. See you next year.
Grade: A
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