8.5/10

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2015)

Finally a true story movie that manages to fin the perfect balance between being didactic and being a great piece of storytelling. This is a very inspiring and touching piece of art that cover a wide array of themes without ever feeling, not for even one second, as it is banging you on the head with self importance.
Even if is a given by now and I can't really say anything that has not been said before by others, I have to address the brilliance of Benedict Cumberbatch. This is a fantastic performance by an actor of majestycal brilliance. He takes on a role of immense complexity and covers every aspect brilliantly, he brings to the table so many little things that successfully manage to make the character grounded, flawed and believable, while in the grand scale he is perfectly balanced and never goes for an exaggeration of emotions that could have made the performance collapse tonally. Furthermore he is not doing that thing that many do of "look-at-me-I'm-an-actor", which elevates the whole drama even more. Besides him we have a very solid cast that does the best with the space it is given. The movie also shines for its great screenplay, which brings together this amazing story in a very tight way. It is incredible how the film manages to cover all of the themes it has, all of the drama involved, the character study, the look at life during war and the moral discussion all without ever feeling its pushing something on you. All of it is so absorbing and touching exactly because it is so fluently calm. I really had a great emotional response to every element and actually shed some tears. Bravo to the director and all of his collaborators, specifically the DP and the editor for never doing things in an eccentric way, it really contributed in bringing a great experience where I forgot at times I was in a theater watching a movie, I felt in the room with Alan Turing and his colleagues.
Yet "The Imitation Game" has a couple of stumbles that aren't very big, but were very frustrating because with its undeniable charm the movie managed to suck you in incredibly easily, five minutes in I knew I was going to really like the movie and it made me want to like it, but these missteps it made, even if small were bothering. Firstly it has a very uneven first act, that continues to shift around and doesn't make you follow the movie as you wish you were. Moreover the whole concept of Enigma is never explained clearly, and whilst this is clearly not the focus of the story and you can guess a good part of it, I never understood what was going on 100% and I wish i could have totally understood what the characters were talking about at times.
My suggestion? Go see this movies now! It will definitely present itself in my best of the year list!