The true enigma was the man who cracked the code.
2014-11-14
$14.0M
113 min
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.
The first time I saw this movie, I loved it. It made me want to learn more about Alan Turing, but the more I learned, the more I realised how inaccurate this movie is. It is well acted, well produced, well cast, and I would still love it if not for the fact that it differs so much from what really happened that it would have been more appropriate to change all the names and portray it as purely historical fiction rather than pretending it has anything to do with the real Alan Turing.
Benedict Cumberbatch is fantastic in this movie. I really dug this. Love movies set during WWII and this one encapsulates it brilliantly. Felt they did the story justice while also having an underlying message on acceptance.
Score: 90% Verdict: Excellent
Whilst I did enjoy this telling of the wartime efforts of the British code-breakers at Bletchley Park, I think I prefer Sir Derek Jacobi's 1996 interpretation of the achievements of Alan Turing, the brilliant mathematician who led a team of enigmatic individuals who broke the Nazi "Enigma" code. Benedict Cumberbatch is really just reprising his BBC "Sherlock" characterisation - even down to the pensive hand gestures. The story is told from quite an interesting retrospection after the pretty unlikeable Turing has been apprehended by the police for what I suppose we'd call "lewd behaviour" nowadays and is being questioned by Rory Kinnear ("Detective Nock"). Indeed, I found all the characterisations to be a bit shallow - Charles Dance, Keira Knightley and Matthew Goode just lacked oomph, I thought. Fascinating story , though - beautifully well presented.
