Movie: The Imitation Game
My Rating: 2 stars
This is a garbage movie—heavy-handed and tone deaf. But it’s even worse than that. The film actually insults the intelligence of its audience. This is the story of Alan Turing and his attempts to build a machine to decrypt Germany’s Enigma machine during World War II. And the movie wants us to really believe that his story is meaningful. But it doesn’t trust that viewers are intelligent enough to make even the smallest inferences. The script will give us a clue, then pan over to the item under discussion. And that’s usually enough for a viewer to get the drift. But, then the film just goes ahead and explicitly explains the situation to us anyway. Whoever directed this film must have hated subtlety.
The script also drones on and on with the clunkiest passages of exposition—really clichéd stuff. Watching this movie was a serious test of my patience. The script was so maddeningly corny, and the scenes so trite and on-the-nose, that it was all I could do to stop myself from hurling insults at the screen. But, that’s a lie. I was heckling the film pretty much constantly. I feel very sorry for the poor people who watched this movie with me, because I’m pretty sure I was a nightmare of a viewing companion. It’s a good thing I didn’t have any rotten cabbages to hurl at the screen.
And, all of this makes me really sad, because Alan Turing is one of the most interesting man in history. He had an amazing mathematical mind, and h solved one of the biggest puzzles cryptographers have ever faced. This is the father of computers we’re talking about! But, this movie is just generic Oscar bait. I can’t tell whether the director was just cynically seeking an award, or whether he really has such unsophisticated taste.
After all these insults, I bet you’re wondering why I didn’t just give this movie one star. And, I guess I rate it a bit higher because the movie actually looks very impressive. It clearly had a very large budget. And the filmmakers definitely spent money on costumes, and sets, and quality actors. The production value is very high. It’s just a shame that I had to listen to the trash dialogue. Ugh! And, sit through all the clumsy flashbacks. It’s just a shame that they’ve managed to camouflage this stinker as an important film. So, I do not recommend this movie You’ll only be disappointed.