Less is more

Rating: 4/10 (17 January 2015)

Don't get me wrong - it's a decent movie. I'll not regret the money I gave away for tickets but basically that's it. These sorts of things happen when you get greedy.
This a spy-movie most of all... I think. Or is it a biography of great Alan Turing? Or is it more of a character study about socially inadvertent, egocentric genius? As if that would not be enough - director tried to tie in several more serious plot lines with Alan Turing's homosexuality and problematics which it caused at the times. Some feminism - first and only female code breaker at bletchley, hiding as secretary (which was absolute bs, there were several female code breakers at Bletchley.
Then there is this certain war-hero line breaking the "Enigma"-code in most crucial moment to save the Europe - historically absolutely ridiculous idea. Spine of the world war II was actually broken in Eastern Front, at the battle of Stalingrad, not at Atlantic Ocean.) There is actually another, even bigger stupid fiction about Alan Turing saving the world almost alone - as Enigma code was actually cracked way earlier by a Polish code breaking bureau and handed over to allies. Alan Turing was one of the people, who helped code breaking systems further down the road, but in no means did he broke the Enigma-system.
Maybe its not crucial to be accurate, who actually broke the Enigma-system as this clearly is a fictional piece of entertainment so why not just give this movie a strong 6 for entertainment.
Unfortunately that can't be done either. Benedict Cumberbatch without any doubt is not your average Joe and therefore tends to play eccentric characters. Still - to me it's not good enough to praise his performance - being eccentric - as he looked nothing like mildly sociopathic, genius mathematician like Alan Turing was. It's actually a pretty certain type of character - egocentric genius, who has strong rational, logical and mathematical way of thinking to compensate lack of empathy, social skills and emotional intelligence. Benedict Cumberbatch reminded more of a neurotically talkative, melanholic old lady with strong tendency to feel sorry for herself, occasionally bursting illogically egocentric phrases. I mean - every social type has it's certain logic. Cumberbatch's Turing just had none and therefore wasn't believable as a (fictional) human character. Same thing applies to Keira Knightley's Joan Clarke.
So 4 from me. Too many ideas and narratives for just one movie. Cant fit the elephant in a jar - more does not equal always the better. Nothing really stood out to carry the main idea which got lost down the road. Too many stupid fictions about history to take this movie as a story of Alan Turing's life, either. So just a movie about some troubled guy saving the war to the world, dealing with issues at the same time. Poorly executed.