The Imitation Game is a mid-century thriller set during World War Two. It follows the story of genius mathematician Alan Turing.
The film begins in 1951 in Manchester when Alan Turing’s home is burgled. The film follows three timeframes, Alan Turing during his school years, the war years and the years following. Benedict Cumberbatch excellently portrays the character of Turing spotlighting his different and quirky side. The plot begins to make sense as Turing attends an interview in Bletchy to become a member of a team of code crackers. He is recruited and instantly it becomes obvious that he is the most dedicated to cracking this immensely challenging code, Enigma. Enigma is a code which German soldiers use to communicate and share their location. With access to this information, the lives of British soldiers would become a lot easier.
An unlikely addition to the team comes when Joan Clarke (Keira Knightly) proves herself to be more intelligent than just a crossword whiz. Turing and her grow close and work exceptionally well together.
As the film progresses and goes back and forth between his school days it becomes more apparent that Turing is homosexual. This at the time was something to be ashamed of and this and his odd personality combined leads to bullying in school. Turing’s homosexuality did eventually lead to his suicide. Since this was such a vital part of his life, I do not think that it is explored enough in the film. It is closer to the 1952’s attitude rather than 2014’s more tolerant and accepting viewers.