Disappointing dramatisation

Rating: 3/10 (29 December 2018)

I had high expectations of this film, having already read Graham Moore's fine historical novel "The Last Days of Darkness". This was an ambitious, and in my view largely successful, to tell the story of the rivalry between Westinghouse and Edison for the control of the electric power industry.
Regrettably, Moore's success as a novelist has not carried across into screen writing. He had first rate raw material: what could be more fascinating than how the British broke the German codes in WW2? And did it with such subtlety that the Germans were never aware of it.
Let me be clear that I would not criticise a writer for simplifying events, merging characters or telescoping events. These are necessary to condense messy reality into a drama that can be absorbed in two hours or so.
I do have problems when a writer completely mis-characterises the protagonist as a socially dysfunctional victim of autism/Asperger's when Turing in fact was not like that at all. Turing did not get engaged to Joan Ckarke. Hugh Alexander did not threaten to destroy a computer called Christopher with a hammer, not least because the computer was not called Christopher. Commander Denniston was not a prickly martinet.
These dramatic fabrications pile up to the point that the film simply loses credibility in the eyes of those with respect for historical authenticity. I am surprised that many reviews have been taken in by the Hollywood sheen and have failed totally to register obviously crass histrionics and stereotyped characters.
The acting was top class, the concept was simply amateurish.