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| Source: Wikipedia |
A.T. is played by Benedict Cumberbatch, the swanky Brit pigeonholed into hyper-competent jerks. His computer, the invention that unintentionally revolutionized civilization, serves as a semi-reliable plot device at best.
However, his other big idea is the"Turing Test," when a computer can fool a human into thinking it's human, the computer passes. The so-called Imitation Game. The inventor, ironically, lives and works like a machine. To crack an uncrackable code, "Why assign a man, when you can task a machine?" But we see too much of his human side to not know better.
To exercise this human side, there's the romantic subplot, this time ripped straight from history, then stuffed full of unnecessary conflict to fill the movie drama quota. The hero's sort of love-interest, the Smurfette of the smartypants club, surmounts sexism and traditional family values (i.e., sexism) to do her job and woo the troubled genius. She provides an ever-reliable source of moral support and angst.
In fact, for maximum dramatic impact, three critical sections of Turing's life overlap.. First is lonely boyhood, and the doomed schoolboy romance (with another schoolboy). Then his productive period with the Secret Service, fighting Hitler with cutting-edge cryptography and morally murky algorithms. And finally the ignominious post-war years, in which our socially crippled war hero succumbs to obscurity and faces petty with drastic consequences. (It's distressing to watch a stiff upper lip collapse into inelegant blubbering.)
This keeps with reality, which has a record of being disproportionately cruel to its flawed messiahs.
Overall: swell film, OK history, engaging character drama.
Though it's incredible the Brits kept all this secret until the nineties.
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