Monday, January 26, 2015

Movie Review: The Imitation Game

Can you take topics as boring as encryption, analog computers, and eccentric mathematicians and actually make a movie that keeps you sitting on the edge, eager to catch every word and action on screen? That's what The Imitation Game achieves, and does so very well indeed!

TIG is based on the true story of the Enigma code, which the Nazis used extensively in WWII, and was deemed impossible to crack in spite of the best efforts of the allies. Until Alan Turing, a young and eccentric mathematician took it upon himself to build a "Turing Machine" to solve the puzzle. Ridiculed for his plans at first, and persecuted in his later life for being gay, TIG is the remarkable story of a very remarkable brain who is credited with ending the war at least a couple of years early, and thereby saving millions of lives.

Benedict Cumberbatch is perfect as Alan Turing, and is ably supported by the beautiful Kiera Knightley. The script is interesting, and the movie does a great job of bringing out the complexity and excitement of the project, without getting too technical and boring about it.

A wonderful tribute to the man who literally gave birth to "computers"!

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