Good enough but historically sketchy

Rating: 6/10 (21 November 2014)

This is a good enough movie, but skirts around the true story in order to make a clunky point about a genius hounded to death for his homosexuality. The plot is simple. Britain is losing the war and desperately needs something to have a chance of survival. Cracking Nazi codes to stop attacks at sea and in the air might just tip the balance. Step forward the secret decoding establishment at Bletchley Park, where expert mathematicians and linguists are recruited to try and break the famous codes sent via the German Enigma machines. And step forward one Alan Turing of Cambridge University, resident if gay genius played by Benedict Cumberbatch. To break the codes apparently Turing invents a machine to do this. Of course, this is all nonsense -the Poles had built machines previously to do this work and had broken Enigma, but with increasing sophistication they no longer had the resources so handed over their work to the British, along with a captured Enigma machine from the Wehrmacht. So tension mounts as Turing uses tons of money on a new (sic) totally innovative machine which does not seem to be quick enough. On the way an overly attractive Joan Clark (played by Keira Knightley), a double first, helps out and gets engaged to Turing, while silly old Commander Dennison played by Charles Dance tries to close down the machine!!!!! Eventually a chance remark and a realisation of something bleedin' obvious puts Turing and co on the right track. Just time for - we must not use all information or Jerry will know we have broken his codes, so little chat about who is saved and who isn't, which is pretty peripheral, before getting to the climax where Turing is chemically castrated by an unfeeling and totally ungrateful country. The thriller elements are okay, but Turing can do no wrong except tell Clark to leave Bletchley, which gets short feminist shrift! Oh dear, the script cannot help itself from being so terribly 21st century liberal in its preachy parts. A pity some other unsung heroes like Tommy Flowers and the Poles do not get a mention! The acting is fine all round, the direction serviceable, and it works at its own level, but the one man band tub thumping with Cumberbatch twitching and not looking directly at people (obvious Oscar material like 'Rain Man') really does a disservice to the great team effort of the wartime code breakers. Remember, an even more advanced, valve-based machine for breaking codes was developed with little participation from Turing by a working class GPO man - Tommy Flowers, who used his own money to finance it. Hope his story is not overlooked just because he was straightforwardly normal!