Solving riddles on-screen while thinking carefully and purposefully seems like enjoyable in principle, but it’s art for the actor performing it. He’s building a real-time, lifelike depiction of a living human. When you phrase it that way, it’s almost mystical, but the audience is on the opposite end of the spectrum. How can seeing someone solve esoteric problems and stare at them carefully be entertaining for an audience? For the most part, they’d be correct. It appears tough to make something of such kind attractive to a broad audience. Benedict Cumberbatch, on the other hand, has frequently responded to the challenge of portraying complicated, clever characters with a startling level of conviction.
Norwegian filmmaker Morten Tyldum sails one incredibly mysterious man’s biography with tremendous finesse in the well-directed and delicate The Imitation Game (2014). I’m referring to Alan Turing, a pioneering modern computer scientist. In less than two hours, the film depicts Turing’s ascent and collapse. Despite being a biography, the film focuses mostly on Alan’s recruitment by the British intelligence organization MI6 to solve the enigma used by the Nazis to convey secret signals to one another. Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister at the time, and the country was in the thick of World War II.
Although the film has been slammed for several errors, since it is a film and the facts have not been severely changed, the cinematic license to create a captivating story on screen appears to be appropriate. But, as brilliant as it was, my main criticism was that we didn’t get to watch Turing battle with his sexuality, come to terms with it, or embrace it in secret. Of course, we see his exile and his post-chemical castration state, both of which are expertly portrayed by the protagonist. But I would have loved to see a bit more of the human drama, and the brilliant man’s personal battle, and how it affected his mental health and his connection with his career.
Turing’s treasured bond with his wife and closest friend, Joan Clarke, is undoubtedly one of the highlights of The Imitation Game (a wonderful Kiera Knightley). For their winning performances, Knightley and Cumberbatch were both nominated for Oscars in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories.
