Just go and watch A Beautiful Mind (or watch it again)

Rating: 4/10 (29 October 2019)

Consider this the textbook example of Oscar-bait. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Alan Turing, a brilliant and influential mathematician and computer scientist who helped decode the Enigma machine that the Nazis were using to send encrypted messages (this saved countless lives) and was later prosecuted for being gay and forced to be chemically castrated. It's an appalling story that this movie does no justice.
The first fatal flaw is its portrayal of Turing. Apparently getting all of its information about genius mathematicians from movies such as Rain Man and A Beautiful Mind, Turing is portrayed as a sort of savant like character who is incapable of social interaction (in real life Turing was not like this). Benedict Cumberbatch is solid, but you can't help feel like he's playing only a slightly altered version of Sherlock (socially inept, eccentric, brilliant). There are other numerous historical inaccuracies as well (it's a movie so full historical accuracy is not needed, but just don't expect to get a good history lesson here).
The other main characters in this film are okay to forgettable. Kiera Knightly is fine as Joan Clarke, another brilliant codebreaker who struggles to gain acceptance because she is a woman. We unfortunately don't get enough time with her. Charles Dance is the tough military guy (he's got a good tough guy routine) and Mark Strong is the mysterious spy. Both completely forgettable.
The script suffers too, mostly playing it by the book with cliches we have seen a thousand times before. There's a corny inspirational line that gets a call back not once, but twice! And there's a eureka scene in a bar that feels like a direct rip off of A Beautiful Mind. I have no idea how this won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Overall, just go and watch A Beautiful Mind. Or go and watch it again if you've already seen it.