The oddly handsome Benedict Cumberbatch doesn't look like other film stars and he doesn't act like them, either. His richly resonant, caramel-coated voice is quickly identifiable in the wide range of roles that he has essayed the past few years ( even when it's been electronically altered, as it is for Smaug the dragon in The Hobbit movies ). Sometimes, the parts haven't fit ( being miscast in August: Osage County, for starters ) but Cumberbatch always makes an impression. When you're hot, you're hot, and when it comes to character movie actors, Cumberbatch is on fire.
Fans of his work as the eccentric detective Sherlock Holmes in the BBC modern-day adaptation have long known that this most technical of performers is more than a character actor—he's real leading man material and they will rejoice when they take in Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game. As Alan Turing—the brilliant, gay mathematician often credited as the father of the personal computer and the genius who cracked the German's infamous Enigma code, helping to win WWII for the Allied Forces—Cumberbatch gives a tremendous performance and ably makes the leap ( and how ) into headlining status in films.
Turing was apparently the oddest of odd ducks—arrogant about his superior intellect, impatient with those of a lesser one and most decidedly antisocial to everyone in between. That, at least, is the impression Turing initially gives to both his fellow brainiacs and his British secret-intelligence superiors ( Charles Dance and Mark Strong ) when he's called upon to help figure out the all-important key to the Enigma code. As we watch Turing and the other would-be code crackers ( Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode and Downtown Abbey's Allen Leech ) go about their secret business, Graham Moore's screenplay concurrently plays out the other two decisive elements in Turing's life.
The first tracks Turing's boarding-school years in which his infatuation with Christopher, another brilliant student ( and Turing's probable first lover ), ends tragically. The other sketches out his personal and professional downfall—the discovery in 1952 by British police of Turing's homosexuality, and his subsequent prosecution. Faced with prison and the interruption of his work, Turing opted for chemical castration which—in the most horrible of ironies—fogged his brilliant mind and directly led to his suicide. After the extraordinary service Turing performed for his country ( which was kept secret during his trials ), his shoddy treatment is nothing less than insidious. ( It was only last year that England finally apologized and cleared his name. )
Both of these defining elements, however, are sidebars to the movie's real focus: Turing and team working to decipher the Nazi's ingeniously difficult code that is changed every 12 hours, nullifying any attempts by the group and forcing them to daily start anew. Seemingly without a sense of humor and immune to the usual social norms, Turing is immediately at odds with the rest of the group—an assemblage of mathematicians, linguists and chess champions. While the others struggle with their own methods, he works at building a huge, prohibitively expensive machine ( dubbed "Christopher" ) that he insists will be able to decipher the code once it's up and running. ( The machine is a forerunner of the computer. )
Eventually, the others form a grudging respect for Turing, helped along by his growing friendship with Joan Clark ( Knightley ), the lone female in the group. When one of the team makes a rare, useful suggestion that Turing thinks might work he says without a hint of irony, "That's not an entirely terrible idea." Joan quickly adds with a smile, "That's Alan's way of saying 'thank you.'" Joan convinces him to try and lighten up ( the sequence where he awkwardly relays a joke in the driest of manners to his colleagues is truly funny ) and when the "aha!" moment comes, the whole gang shares in the triumph of cracking Enigma. ( It's the film's most bracing sequence. )
The friendship with the feisty Joan leads to an awkward marriage proposal, even though Alan wonders to one of the group, "Should I tell her that I'm a homosexual and have had affairs with men?" Later, when Alan tries to break off the engagement, citing his sexuality, Joan says she doesn't care—that their close bond is much more important than his being gay. But the relationship ends anyway as the group is dissolved, with everyone sworn to secrecy about their intelligence work.
Although Moore's script ( based on Andrew Hodges' dense biography ) is upfront about Turing's homosexuality, it opts out of showing him in any physical encounters, soft peddling or sidestepping moments ( especially in the latter part of Turing's life ) that could have helped Cumberbatch's already multifaceted performance go even deeper.
I don't suppose it's much of a surprise that a queer film critic would carp a bit about this but I also understand why Swedish director Morten Tyldum ( making his first English-language movie ) and Moore ( who also executive-produced ) opted for their more commercially friendly angle. In focusing most heavily on the Bletchley Park years, The Imitation Game becomes a hybrid of both a prestige biopic and a quasi-thriller, with the race to crack that all-important puzzle trumping the personal aspects of the story.
The approach has an added benefit for the larger audience that won't be familiar with Turing: In leaving the man who solved the Enigma code a bit of an enigma himself, The Imitation Game both restores Turing to his rightful place in history and encourages audiences to delve further into the life of this unusual man at the same time—a not-insignificant accomplishment.
Ridley Scott's new movie, Exodus: Gods and Kings, is yet another retelling of the Biblical story of Moses, Ramses and their fight over the freeing of the slaves from bondage in Egypt. The material has been the basis for a lot of movies in the past ( most recently the 1998 animated adaptation ). Yet none of the versions ( including this one ) really stands up to the over-the-top, 1956 Cecil B. DeMille three-hour epic in which Charlton Heston and Yul Brynner played the warring stepbrothers and Anne Baxter portrayed Nefretiri, their sex-kitten princess.
Oh, both Christian Bale and Joel Edgerton ( looking particularly fetching in his bare midriff costumes ) are okay fill-ins for Heston and Brynner. ( Baxter's role, unfortunately, is almost completely excised here. ) The special effects are impressive enough, especially when God—who is visible to Moses in the personage of a droll English boy—curses Pharaoh's people with the series of visually icky plagues. But there aren't the melodramatic histrionics just this side of camp that are the hallmark of any good Biblical epic, and the parting of the Red Sea sequence has no dramatic heft. This points out the central problem evident long before it finally arrives: There's not much passion or juice in this straightforward edition of the story. Improbable as it may seem, Scott has made a religious epic without a smidgen of religious fervor.
Film notes:
—Tis the Season: The holiday season continues with three free screenings of Scrooge & Marley ( which I co-wrote and directed, and which was executive-produced by Windy City Times Publisher Tracy Baim ). On Sunday, Dec. 14, the film plays at the Oak Park Public Library, 834 Lake St., Oak Park ) at 2 p.m., followed by a 4:30 p.m. reception ( both sponsored by PFLAG Oak Park, SAGE and OPALGA ).
The Chicago Public Library presents two separate screenings of the movie on Monday, Dec. 15 at the Humboldt Park branch, 1605 N. Troy St., and again Monday, Dec. 22, at the Bezazian branch, 1226 W. Ainslie St. Both screenings at 6pm. Members of the film's creative team will attend and Scrooge & Marley merchandise will be available.
—The Two Faces of January, adapted from bisexual writer Patricia Highsmith's mystery thriller novel, stars Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst and Oscar Isaac. Set in Greece in 1962, it's stylish, cinematically gorgeous, well-acted by its equally gorgeous three leads and has plenty of the patented acrid Highsmith touches. The movie has its Chicago theatrical premiere run, opening Friday, Dec. 12, at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St. http://www.siskelfilmcenter.org/twofacesofjanuary
—Now available: The Best of Knight at the Movies: 2004-2014—a compilation book of more than 150 of my film reviews from a queer perspective for Windy City Times—is now available and makes a great holiday gift! www.knightatthemovies.com .
