Falls a bit short on a number of counts.

Rating: 7/10 (28 March 2016)

With the excellent Benedict Cumberbatch in the lead role, The Imitation Game is a movie that aspires to movie greatness, but I'm sorry to say, that in my humble opinion, it falls a bit short on a number of counts.
It is the story of the brilliant scientist/mathematician, Alan Turing who was the man who almost single-handedly cracked the enigma code machine in the Second World War. This remarkable feat is generally acknowledged to have shortened the war by at least two years and saved thousands upon thousands of lives.
It is also the story of a man who has been credited with the invention of the modern day computer.
It is also the story of the man who was a homosexual, and who was prosecuted for committing (what were then considered to be) 'illegal' acts, and who subjected himself to state administered chemical castration rather than spend time in jail.
It is also the story of a man who was treated so shabbily by the country who owed him so much that at the age of 39, he killed himself.
It is a difficult story to tell in a couple of hours – especially when we know nothing about the really exciting part – the details of what exactly led up to Turing breaking of the enigma code during the war. We know he was hired to lead a team and he built and used a very primitive form of computer to break the code. More than that is still secret, or the records have long since been destroyed.
The film writers decided to write what they thought was a clever piece of fiction in which Turing was continually fighting his bully- boy bosses; that his resentful, fellow workers all thought he was an idiot; that he was wasting valuable funds, and was probably a Russian spy. According to the film, he was at constant at risk of being fired.
All the above is fiction. Indeed, they would have us believe that that it was only after Turing wrote directly to Churchill that he was put in charge and granted the funds to build his computer. (Fiction again.)
It really is a load of tosh, and Charles Dance's role as Turing's ignorant, malevolent commanding Officer is so full of 'cartoon- evil', that for all the world, he comes across as a male manifestation of Creuella Deville. One of the most outrageous fictitious story lines concerns Turing's failure to report a Soviet spy to avoid being outed as gay. It is pure Hollywood invention, as are so many of the dramatic machinations that allegedly took place at Bletchley Park.
It is a pity, as although I really don't like biopics unless they are very good – this might have been an exception, but sadly it isn't. The film didn't seem to know what it wanted to do – celebrate the genius of a man who shortened the war by two years and invented the computer, or show us how gays, even war heroes, were so appallingly treated by the authorities in Britain back in the early 50's. I think it tries to do both and falls a bit flat on both counts
It is still a very watchable, entertaining movie, and Cumberbatch and Dance are always worth seeing – whatever films they are in, as is the gorgeous Keira Knightley. But I don't think Benedict quite nailed the role – maybe he tried a little too hard.
It just isn't that good. Honestly – I've seen a couple of documentaries on Turing that are much better. Incidentally, it is a fact that Churchill later acknowledged Turing's massive contribution to the war effort, which shortened the war by at least two years, but no mention was made of the disgraceful way he was treated in the early 1950's because he was gay.
Turing was recently pardoned by the then PM Gordon Brown for his 'crime' of being a practicing homosexual, but isn't it about time he was posthumously awarded a knighthood? After all, he is one of Britain's greatest ever heroes. If the likes of Cliff Richard, Mick Jagger and Bruce Forsyth and Angelina Jolie can become Knights and Dames of the Realm, then surely Alan Turing is equally deserving of the honour.