Benedict Cumberbatch Offers A Brilliant Portrayal Of A Troubled And Tormented Man

Rating: 7/10 (14 March 2017)

Benedict Cumberbatch was absolutely superb in this biopic as Alan Turing. Turing was a bona fide war hero - a status achieved not on the battle field, but at home. A mathematical genius, Turing was part of a team that managed to decrypt the coded messages the Germans sent using their "Enigma" machine, primarily through the use of his so-called "Turing machine" - which was basically an early, primitive computer. Some have referred to Turing as the father of modern computer science. His hero status aside, however, Turing was a troubled and tormented man. He was socially awkward, isolated, and largely friendless. Although the word is never used in the movie, it seems clear that by modern standards, he was probably autistic. Adding to his torment was the fact that he was also gay in a society that was actively hostile to homosexuals, and in which homosexuality was illegal. I thought Cumberbatch captured the complexities of the man brilliantly.
Essentially the movie is presented as a flashback. Turing's homosexuality was discovered several years after the war's end, and the story of his past is told as he's interviewed by a detective. Most of the film is set in Bletchley Park, where the work on Enigma was conducted, and revolves around his troubled relationships with his co-workers on the project, including Joan (played by Keira Knightley) - the one true friend he made, and to whom he was briefly engaged. At times, the flashbacks go back further to his time as a student at a boarding school where he develops the other great friendship of his life - with fellow student Christopher Morcom, who tragically dies of tuberculosis, an event which surely traumatized Turing greatly.
The movie follows Turing's life up until its end in 1954 at the tragically young age of 41. The film accepts the official determination that he committed suicide by cyanide poisoning. Having been discovered to be homosexual, he had been given the choice of prison or "chemical castration" - basically being forced to take estrogen in order to weaken his libido. The movie shows him being despondent and physically shattered by the treatments, leading to his suicide. That thesis isn't universally accepted, though. Some have pointed out that the hormone treatments had ended a year before his death, and that Turing had made some very definite plans for his future work, and he had been engaged in some experiments that could have led to accidental cyanide poisoning. There is even the inevitable conspiracy theory, suggesting that Turing was murdered by British security forces. However, the official verdict is suicide, and none of the other theories was explored or even mentioned. In the end, the film becomes a critique - and an appropriate one - of the decision of previous generations to criminalize homosexuality, noting the thousands of men who had been convicted under the old laws. Finally, in 2013, Turing was posthumously pardoned, and laws have allowed the pardons of several thousand other men similarly convicted.
There are some historical points in the movie with which one can quibble, but to do so misses the point that the movie wasn't really about the history of the events (although they are reasonably if imperfectly portrayed) but was instead about Turing's complex and tragic life. Cumberbatch brought the man to life brilliantly, and the writers managed to give us a fascinating glimpse into his mind. It's not an especially exciting movie, but it is a good study of a man who deserves to be better known than he is, since Turing's work on Enigma was kept secret for many years after the end of the war. (7/10)