As soon
as I heard about this upcoming movie, I was crazy excited for it. A biopic about Alan Turing, genius code-breaker
who helped dramatically shorten World War II with his technical and
mathematical knowhow, British hero who was treated appallingly by his country
due to his sexuality? A fascinating lead
character for Benedict Cumberbatch and a host of other fine British actors? Period costumes, awesome 1940s proto-computers,
and ciphers as far as the eye could see?
I was all over that.
So, I
was disappointed that it wasn’t everything I wanted it to be. Don’t get me wrong – it’s a good movie, and I
really liked watching it. However, it’s
not without its cinematic issues and, while it’s enjoyable as a movie, it’s
problematic as a biopic. The latter
issue is wider in scope and more spoilery than I want to get into for an
overall review, so I’ll save the dramatic license for another post.
Film-wise,
I only have one major complaint – the movie doesn’t seem to know quite what it
wants to be about. The brunt of the
story follows Turing’s work at Bletchley Park during the war, augmented by childhood
flashbacks of his earliest love of puzzles/ciphers (as well as boys,) and a
police interview during his later legal troubles serves as a framing device for
the whole movie. While the individual
scenes flow into one another pretty well and don’t feel disjointed, the film
feels a bit at a thematic loss. It’s not
a comprehensive bio, but it’s not an in-depth snapshot either. The split focus on three different periods of
his life don’t quite come together, and in the final scene, it’s clear the
movie’s not sure how to reconcile them.
As I
said, though, the assorted pieces of the film come off well. The dialogue is sharp and entertaining, filling
us luddites in on the pertinent math without condescending. I like seeing a war story that’s so far from
the front lines, where the battles are waged over radio signals and the heroes’
strongest weapons are their intellects.
I’d heard pre-release rumblings that the film played up Turing’s
relationship with colleague Joan Clarke too romantically, but I think they have
a good, platonic connection based on their work and mutual fascination with
puzzles.
Cumberbatch
gives a predictably fantastic performance.
His Turing is piercingly intelligent, and he puts many off with his
laser focus and casual arrogance, but Cumberbatch never lets him feel
cold. When Turing fails to connect with
others, it’s because they’re a puzzle he doesn’t know how to solve. Keira Knightley’s Joan is brilliant, gutsy, and
perceptive. Many of the other characters
don’t get much focus or nuance, but the rest of the cast provides fine
support. I always like Matthew Goode
(though A Single Man is still the
first film that comes to mind when I see him,) Mark Strong (admittedly, not my
favorite Mr. Knightley, but that’s just because there have been so many great
ones) is reliably good, and it’s fun to see Allen Leech outside of Downton Abbey (although hearing him with
a Scottish accent rather than Irish was really
odd to hear!) Still, with this film, it’s
clearly Cumberbatch’s world, and everyone else just lives in it.
Warnings
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