Cumberbatch just as good as any of the others

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 2015)

In a field including The Theory of Everything's Eddie Redmayne and Birdman's Michael Keaton, Benedict Cumberbatch does not appear to be an Oscar favorite. On the other hand, the most-read movie critics are uncannily unanimous that his performance as Alan Turing is no less than perfection. Unfortunately, as I reflect on many of the Oscar prizes given out over the years, perfection in performance may not necessarily count as it deserved to. Also, to be fair, the two aforementioned competitions equally fit the description.
In the support cast are two prominent character actors, in roles that in a way pitched one against another. Commander Denniston is played by Charles Dance who will always be identified by many as Tywin Lannister, a role that he seems to be have born for. Secret service agent Stewart Menzies is played by the omnipresent (on the big screen) Mark Strong who recently seems to be diversifying from his customary villain persona, and beginning to play good guys such as in "Kingsman" which I happened to have watched on the day before this movie. In "The imitation game", the former is bent on shutting down Turing's project while the latter is not unlike a guardian angel to Mr. Turing. Two other brilliant performances come from Keira Knightley playing an assistant and intellectual equal, and Matthew Goode as the initial team leader and rival later turning into a loyal supporter.
The breaking of the German encryption code Enigma by a team of mathematics wiz lead by Turing has generally been considered to be an enormous help in helping the Allies win. Even more (much more) significant, the machine that Turing built to achieve this is considered to be the World's very first digital computer, earning him recognition as the father of computer science. This in-depth bio-pic tells us more. Turing had a form of autistic tendency which manifested itself as an inability to interpret verbal communications to him in anything other than in the literal sense. As shown in the movie, colleagues saying to him "we are going out to lunch" can in no way in his mind be equated to "come and join us for lunch". Perhaps that explains his brilliance in handling machine language.
Following the Turing team through their struggle against impossible odds the audience is eventually rewarded with the "bingo" moment that comes with good dramatization. Taking in the yells of jubilation, hugs and all, the audience may also find joy in sharing this moment of triumph of the 5 brilliant MINDS (as opposed to people) that have been interacting at a level beyond the grasp of us mere mortals. That reminds me of Michael Frayn's superb play "Copenhagen" depicting two top nuclear physicists communicating in a language that we can only admire, but not comprehend.
But then immediately after that moment of ecstasy comes the darkest hell. Deciphering the code enabled them to pinpoint an imminent attack on a convoy. Just as one young member urged sending word to the navy to prevent the attack (his brother was in the convoy), Turing stopped him, with cold, hard logic: there is no way the Germans would fail to understand that Enigma has been broken, and the team's hard work of two years would be all for naught. The way to make the most out of the now deciphered Enigma is to devise a complex, statistically based scheme to mislead, misguide and otherwise fool the Germans. The convoy in the immediate focus would just have to be collateral damage, as well as the team member's brother in it. Everybody else agreed with Turing.
For the other element of the plot, Turing is in good company, Oscar Wilde, who was also persecuted for homosexuality. Turing did not go to jail but tried to endure "chemical castration" (through self-administered drugs) and wound up taking his own life.
As mentioned above, this movie presents the solving of Enigma as instrumental to a grandiose scheme of strategies with immense impact on winning WWII. No one should have any problem with that as the movie is not a treatise on the history of the war. There is however an interesting alternative observation that surfaced recently. There is now a school of thinking that the breaking of Enigma may not have been as critical a factor to the Allies' victory as generally believed. As the theory goes, even many were destroyed, the German U-boats could have still prevailed by sheer numbers. The Allies' victory came from winning the battle of the factories and shipyards: they simply managed to build convoy ships at a rate faster than the U-boats could sink them.