The Imitation Game

2014 • 114 minutes

About this movie

The Imitation Game is a dramatic portrayal of the life and work of one of Britain's most extraordinary unsung heroes, Alan Turing. Based on the real life story of Alan Turing (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), who is credited with cracking the German Enigma code, The Imitation Game portrays the nail-biting race against time by Turing and his brilliant team at Britain's top-secret code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II. Directed by Morten Tyldum (Headhunters) with a screenplay by Graham Moore, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Allen Leech, Matthew Beard, Charles Dance and Mark Strong.

Ratings and reviews

Once I'd seen it, I chose to show this to my 11 and 9 year olds. For that age, it's a tough film, and I recommend pausing occasionally to discuss. Afterwards both kids thought the film was excellent. The issues raised include: • What is homosexuality, and why were gay men witch-hunted in the 1940s, and childhood gay love • About cryptography and mathematics • About early computers (how their tablets came to be) and the modern computer as a fast adding machine with better sensors and display • The horror of London in wartime, and why we must never let war happen • The morality of knowingly choosing to let people die that you could save • Why secrecy meant that no-one could know what they did, leading to questions of long term altruism • Suicide The film is wonderfully acted, and weaves the Enigma story, and a love story, with a post-narrative thread set in the 1950s (which is probably fiction, but helps the viewer understand what's going on). This isn't a laugh a minute film, but is, to my mind, an important film which could be a contender to be on a school syllabus. It's also a great film for adults, and even second time around I was on the edge of my seat. 

This is perfectly entertaining but reminds me of a big budget BBC TV film rather than a Hollywood movie. I felt it was quite simple and could have portrayed the relationship between Turing and Joan Clarke in a more sensitive and realistic way. She was a real person but they seem to have totally fictionalised her by getting Kiera Knightley to play her. We also never find out HOW the imitation game itself works, and we don't see large parts of the real history of the story, which would have been better. For example, they actually had 10 000 people working for them at Station X, including many eccentrics and boffins and a special way of delivering messages to to each other by hydraulic tubes! Still a good watch, but if you have read the blurb about this you learn nothing by watching the film. A more ambitious attempt at realism would have paid off.

This a fantastic film which covers a large variety of themes, some of which are very relevant today. There are many reviews out there criticising the way that the film portrayed the cracking of the Enigma code, and how it didn't show the whole context and really what went into it. However I think the film portrays it perfectly. After watching this film time and time again, it always keeps me alert and focused - something that other films cannot achieve time again. I highly recommend this film.