An Enjoyable Watch but Deeply Flawed at its Core

Rating: 4/10 (8 May 2015)

This was a somewhat enjoyable watch but I thought the movie was deeply flawed in its core. First off, though the general story is true I doubted much of its historical accuracy. Also its characterization of Turing was quite unbelievable. Was he a genius? Of course, we can clearly see that. But was he a flawless machine of a human himself? No. His colleagues were even made out to be completely incompetent dunces as well. Turing's character was portrayed as a cocky self absorbed man which he may well have been, but a lot of the dialogue and humor in the movie seemed out of place and very unlikely. I'm sure a lot of this has been completely dramatized and romanticized, even down to the simple aesthetics of his creation. Cumberbatch is highly praised for his role which was a good performance but failed in some areas. One in particular that I saw was his awkwardness. He was supposed have extreme difficulty reading people which at times he tried to act like that yet at other times he was witty and socially connected which goes completely contrary to that personality.
The film leaves the audience with some implied or outright stated conclusions that did not sit well with me at all. The first was that World War II can be diminished down to a conflict being run by "a half a dozen crossword enthusiasts in Southern England." The writers acted like these few people single-handedly ended the war. This is just utterly ridiculous. It was also claimed that Turing saved 14 million lives and ended the war early by two years. That is something that you cannot possibly put a number to. There is no doubt that they achieved something remarkable and were an immense help to the war effort, but think of everyone who was involved in this and especially the men who died on the battlefields (which they conveniently avoided throughout the film even the short scenes of the war they only showed machines, airplanes, tanks and no human lives). It was really a slap in the face and a disrespect to the honor of those who fought, not to mention countless others. Having all of the information from the Axis forces would do no good if there wasn't anyone to act on it.
Another idea that they insinuated was that if you are incredibly talented at something you are above reproach or that no one can ever rightly cast judgement on you. Part of that I think was their small push of their own opinions on homosexuality. I think they were trying to implant their own views on the subject as a way of subtle under-the-radar propaganda. I am not saying that Turing wasn't unfairly treated in the end, but they make him out to be a flawless god-like man who could do no wrong just because of his intelligence. The film really avoided the subject of him and his inner demons, not to say that that should have been their main focus.
His demise in the end was also very unclearly presented. A robbery, a forbidden relationship, and the other events surrounding it were spattered throughout with no real explicit telling of the facts. It was just another problem near the end that made this movie not nearly what it is cracked up to be.