Smart, Emotive and Interesting, It Does Many Things Well But None Stupendously

Rating: 8/10 (23 February 2015)

A tidy biopic on the delicate genius that was Alan Turing and his harsh, repeated personal violations at the hands of the state. It can feel overly traditional in places - structurally it's a movie I've seen a thousand times before - but I really enjoyed the performances and the angular look given to its cast. Nobody's a complete saint or sinner, even Turing himself, and the film is at its best exploiting those hidden character motivations and personality quirks. Benedict Cumberbatch is the most visible performer, of course, engulfing the screen as the intensely-awkward codebreaker who possesses neither wit nor tact. A kind of autist savant, he's very good at one thing and that is not social interaction. I was more impressed with Keira Knightley, though, as his fiancée-of-convenience, Joan Clarke. Her eyes dazzle with caged intellect, as much a victim of the era of misogyny as Turing was to a jealous, homophobic witch-hunt. Together the two positively vibrate, a beautiful partnership that was ultimately bound to self-destruct. Deeply interesting and quite often moving, it's an oddly cathartic experience despite the dark ending.