The Imitation Game

It's been a tough few months waiting for this one but we made it through. The Imitation Game is one of the most highly anticipated films of the year - turns out it might also be one of the most important. Now The Optimist offers you less of a recommendation and more of a shove towards the cinema. Mark my words, you'll be glad you've seen this when award season comes around.

It's hard to avoid spoilers for this film because the story is already public knowledge. If you've been following the promotional trail or if you've read up on Alan Turing, you'll already know the plot. The screenplay writer didn't need to add much to make the story more filmic or more moving, Turing's life played out like a Hollywood movie - the tragedy is that it's taken 74 years for him to be recognised as a hero.

Turing was part of the Bletchley Park team that attempted to break the German Enigma code during WWII. His theory that a machine could be used to decipher the one hundred and fifty nine million million possible settings of the enemy's encryption device lead him to build one of the world's first computers and he is now known as the father of modern computer science. In 1952, Turing was convicted of gross indecency and underwent chemical castration after he admitted to having a homosexual relationship, which was illegal at that time. It is estimated that his work saved more than 14 million lives, yet he died at 41 in suspicious circumstances, with his reputation, unfairly, in tatters.

The film cuts between three stages of his life; his school days, where he discovered his knack for problem solving; his time at Bletchley Park doing just that; and the final, troubled years before his death. I've been obsessively Googling reviews for this film since it first premiered in September and one talked about the unnecessary use of flashbacks. I wouldn't even call them flashbacks - cutting between the three time periods is a really elegant way of telling the story.

It will be a travesty if Alexandre Desplat's score doesn't pick up something when award season comes around - it's perfection. The production design is right up there too. It's simple but it's stunningly authentic and the cinematography bumps it up to another level. As Turing cycles through the rubble of a bombed building, we pan past a group of school children in vivid red gas masks. It's haunting but it's beautiful. (Apologies, I seem to be vomiting adjectives.)

As you may already know, there's a lot of hype surrounding old Benny C's performance, but I'm going to come back to him later, because right now, I HAVE to tell you about Alex Lawther, who plays Turing as a teenager. There's no existing footage or recordings of Turing so both actors had to use their imaginations when playing him, but it's hard to tell which performance came first. Did Alex base his on Benedict's or was it the other way around? They match up so perfectly. Either way, Lawther is stupendous. He silently bares the torment of bullies and stammers with excitement when talking about cyphers with his friend Christopher. He's utterly compelling and once his part of the story's over, you'll find yourself craving more scenes with him in them.

Likewise with Keira Knightley who plays Turing's fellow codebreaker Joan Clarke. She's incredibly natural with Benedict and incredibly likeable. Though the rest of the team are doing alright on their own, she's the catalyst that kicks them into action - everything has an extra bit of energy once she arrives.

Now, shall we talk about Mr Cumberbatch? Ok, if you insist. Ever since Sherlock started in 2010, people have been calling him "the greatest actor of his generation" - with this performance, he might just have proved those people right. There are moments in this film, when the pain he portrays is so visceral it's difficult to watch - that alone is an achievement, but by far the most impressive thing about his performance, for me anyway, is his subtlety. It's the stammer that creeps into his voice every time he gets angry or his inability to look people in the eye when he talks to them; the breathless excitement when his machine starts to work and the look of bemusement on his face after he's insulted someone. He builds a picture of a genius who isn't necessarily aware of his vulnerability. It's a towering performance.

This is assuming he didn't just copy it all off Alex Lawther of course.

So, let's end where we started, with the story - Alan's story. In August, Turing was granted an official pardon by the Queen - 74 years after he first cracked the Enigma code. With this, he can finally be celebrated as a hero instead of being labelled a criminal. As the epilogue fades in at the end of this remarkable film, the magnitude of Turing's achievement hits home. The debt we owe him is huge.