Why was I not impressed?

Rating: 6/10 (19 January 2015)

It is hard to say why I wasn't impressed by this movie. The story of mathematician and war hero Alan Turing is interesting enough. It's a rather little-known but decisive episode in the history of World War II. The acting is top notch: Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightly are both great, and there's a real chemistry between them. Much care has been put in reconstructing the way the war era looked, and the cinematography is well done.
The problem is that is was all a bit too perfect for my taste. I know it sounds silly, but all those well-designed sets, clever conversations and carefully constructed plot developments didn't really grip me.
Some scenes seemed too good to be true: did Turing really get the idea of how to break the code because of a flirtatious conversation between his colleagues? Was Joan Clarke really the only one to finish the puzzle test in less than 6 seconds, something that even Turing himself considered impossible? Did a member of Turings team really learn from the very first decoded message that his brother was about to be bombed? I couldn't help thinking that the script writers had included these scenes to spice up the story and to please a large audience.
'The Imitation Game' is a good film about an important story that needs to be told. I'm glad I've seen it. It was just that I didn't come out of the cinema saying: 'wow'.