Sometimes it's the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.

Rating: 6/10 (23 January 2015)

I Was highly excited about The Imitation Game. Being a student in the field of Computer Science, I try not to miss biopics like this one. Overall it was a very good inspiring experience yet I must say it has quite many flaws. Maybe my expectations were too high. Anyways, have my utmost respect to Alan Turing whose work has been immensely influential in the field of computation and algorithms. Graham Moore's screenplay (adapted from 'Alan Turing : The Engima") boosted by mesmerizing performance by Benedict Cumberbatch does great justice portraying the character of Alan Turing on the screen.
The Imitation Game captures Alan Turing's life at three different stages. 1928-When Turing was in school, 1940-when he starts working at Bletchley park to crack the enigma and 1951-police investigation a robbery at Turing's place. While the part I was most excited about was the cracking of the enigma, which is an encryption device used by Germans for war-related communication during WWII. Turing with help of other mathematicians and experts at Bletchely Park like Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) and Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode) build the "Bombe", the machine for decryption of German messages so that English would know location of German attacks and plan accordingly. The film though kind highlights Turing a bit too much as if he did it all single handed but he indeed was the mastermind behind the implementation. The childhood part shows Turing's relation with his only good friend Cristopher among gangs of bullies. While the house robbery part of 1951 is where Turing gives account of all the events through his life as narrated in the film when he his being interrogated by the police. There is lot switching back and forth in the timeline of events, which wasn't necessary feeling like a poor trying- to-be-smart effort. There was a lot of potential with the enigma- cracking in the script to genuinely render smartness, unfortunately they only scratch the surface of it. I wished there was more math and actual computational terminology involved.
Despite the main core of the film being the actual cracking of the enigma, the back and forth switches kind of kill the intensity and thrill. Also it made the narration lack focus. Keeping those things aside, it does not fail to imprint the glorious achievements of Turing in our minds. Benedict Cumberbatch has given an award-worthy performance in the tough race of outstanding actors in 2014. Keira Knightley was also surprisingly great and delightful to watch. The production design is top notch encapsulating the WWII time ideally. Alexandre Desplat's score is beautiful as most of his works. I was slightly disappointing having too high expectations, overall The Imitation Game is a thrilling,inspiring,charismatic but over- dramatized biopic.
RATING: [3/5]