Very very disappointing although the cast is excellent

Rating: 2/10 (12 December 2014)

I am astonished at the rave reviews this film is getting and depressed at how many people will now go through life with their impression of Alan Turing and code breaking at Bletchley "informed" by this film. The plot is drivel. If you take this film at face value you will leave believing that Turing was single-handedly responsible for just about everything at Bletchley including the original idea for the Bombe machine not to mention constructing it on his own in a barn, recruitment of staff, the first breaking of any Enigma traffic, the idea of using known words to crack messages, making strategic decisions about whether or not to save trans-Atlantic convoys and countless other things. Most of the film is just nonsense. There is no way that Turing would have been in a position to decide not to save the convoy (or even know that there was one to save). He wasn't responsible for the idea of using standard text in messages as ways into the Enigma settings (which had been done since before the war). The construction of the Bombe machines was a huge exercise involving a team of technicians and parts supplied by external manufacturers, not Turing wiring it up alone in a barn in his shirt-sleeves. It wasn't actually even his idea; the idea of using a machine was brought to him by Dilly Knox from pre-war ideas worked up by a Polish team. Nor could the machine spit out deciphered messages after a couple of minutes. Turing wasn't in charge either, he didn't come up with ideas of using crosswords to find recruits and he wasn't alone in writing to Churchill; several of them signed the letter. Oh yes, and there were several women code-breakers at Bletchley. The screenplay is also riddled with anachronisms, which just add to the sense of "Oh this is ridiculous" throughout the film. No way would a well brought up young lady in the 1940s say "Oh my God!" three times in as many minutes. There are too many others to recall or mention. Benedict Cumberbatch and the rest of the cast are excellent in their roles with the material they are given (hence two stars rather than one) but that cannot save what is ultimately a very disappointing film. This is not a biopic of Turing, which is how it is presented, but a nonsensical made up story tacked on to a heavy-handed political point about homosexuality, which we all got without the banner at the end. Two hours I won't get back.