One of THE VERY BEST films of the past decade

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2015)

Most people go to a movie hoping to see what "they anticipate or expect" based on a published story line (example as posted on IMDb or a local newspaper) and the posted movie genre of their preference that being an action, drama, thriller, romance, comedy or other. Mrs. Shullivan and I use Friday nights as our date night, dinner and a movie. Our deal is that we alternate who gets to pick the film we are going to see. On this particular Friday night it was my turn to pick our film elixir so I chose the autobiography (slash) thriller, The Imitation Game, and what a fine elixir it was for both of us! For all the mediocre and truly bad movies we sit through, when you eventually discover a gem like The Imitation Game the movie drug hits you once again and you realize that yes, it is still worth putting on your coat, stepping out in to the cold night and putting down your hard earned cash to go to the theatre rather than wait to purchase a DVD copy for half the price a feature film, popcorn and drinks will cost you. The Imitation Game is the type of film that quite simply just keeps you intensely focused on that large screen and allows one to escape anything and everything that is happening around you as if you were sitting in an empty theatre and the film is playing to an audience of one.you.
Obviously this autobiography has taken liberties with Alan Turing's actual events. To create a truly memorable film the relatively unknown screenwriter (Graham Moore) and director (Morten Tyldum) would need to utilize the 114 minutes film length to reflect not only actual events that take place over decades from mathematician's Alan Turing's academic years as an introverted and closeted homosexual but also as a mathematical genius, problem solver whose interactions with fellow classmates, military personnel and fellow code breakers would keep Alan Turing as an outcast always looking in. Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing with so much emotion and intensity that we the audience all were rooting for him to break the German's secretive code. When he eventually does break the code with his machine named (after his only friend from his school days) Christopher, Turing shows us how valuable he was to the British intelligence by realizing how effective mathematical probabilities really are in winning not the battle, but the war.
This film depicts an unknown likely hero who through his efforts in building one of the very first computers saved hundreds, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of peoples' lives with the assistance of Alan Turing's genius. Benedict Cumberbatch's performance has been rewarded with both a nomination for an Academy Award and Golden Globe nomination as Best Actor of January 2015. Whether he wins or loses these awards Mrs. Shullivan and I reward him with our gratitude for keeping our interest to continue to support the theatre box office.
There are some other excellent performances as well such as by Keira Knightley who plays the only female code breaker Joan Clarke and true friend of Alan Turing, Matthew Goode who plays Hugh Alexander originally assigned as the Team Leader of the code breakers but is eventually ousted by British Intelligence in favor of Alan Turing, the quirky smart-ass unlikeable code breaker but persistent to no end in breaking the German code. Mark Strong who played Major General Chief of British Secret Intelligence Service M16 also played a very convincing role.
The Imitation Game does not waste one minute of screen time. This film embodies a superb story line, wonderful cinematography, true wit when needed, and a stellar cast of actors that will be remembered for decades by their performance in The Imitation Game. As I stated at the beginning of my movie appraisal, this week was my turn to choose and the last film we saw was Mrs. Shullivan's choice and she chose a musical genre that was simply a stinker of a film. To break the mystery of Mrs. Shullivan's last (lousy) movie pick you will have to go back to my previous review under the genre "musical". Good luck if you choose to take the challenge and break the code.