The Imitation Game

First Hit:  The amazing acting tells a truly amazing story about belief and perseverance.

This is the amazing story of how Germany’s Enigma machine was decoded and used to assist the allies in winning World War II.

Alan Turing is featured here as the father of machines that think (the way machines think/process information – today we call them computers). As a young boy Turing (young Alex play by Alex Lawther) is a smallish, nerd who is picked upon by his fellow classmates. He’s smart and begins to discover his homosexuality through caring about, of, and for his one true school friend – Christopher.

During the war he’s asked to participate in decoding the German Enigma machine. He’s grouped with Hugh (Matthew Goode), John (Allen Leech), Peter (Matthew Beard), Jack (James Northcote) and then Alan finds and adds Joan (Keira Knightley) to the team. Each of them are good puzzle solvers, chess players and/or mathematicians.

Problem with this team is that Turing (adult Turning played by Benedict Cumberbatch) doesn’t work well with others. He believes that he can build a machine that will solve the problem and thinks trying to decode Enigma manually is a useless endeavor. He thinks working with a team will slow him down.

This is an amazing story and the acting is top shelf. However, the problem I found with the film is that it tells this story in three different time frames and juggles them in a way that didn’t work for me. I was fascinated by the young Turing, and as I begin to fully drop into this child’s experience, bang we’re in the 1950’s and he’s being arrested for homosexuality, then bang we’re back into the story of him building a machine to decode Enigma.

All three stories are great and the acting in them is great – it is the jostling of my emotions that I didn’t like by the way it moved from one story to another. However, all told it was an amazingly acted film that told a wonderful and powerful story.

Lawther is absolutely mesmerizing as the young Turing. His expressions and soulful eyes told a huge story. Cumberbatch as the adult Turing is stunning and embodied a man who understood problems and math far more than people. I loved the scene where he stated that he was always decoding because people never said what the meant. Knightly is, again, sublime. She’s perfect as the only bright light in Turing’s relationships with people. Goode is very strong as the chess master who learns to respect what Turing can do. Leech, Beard and Northcote are great in their supporting roles as code solvers. Mark Strong as the MI6 manager of this team is cunningly strong. Charles Dance is perfect as Commander Denniston the man who wanted to run a tight ship. Graham Moore wrote a strong script but he and director Morten Tyldum could have, in my opinion, made a better film if it was more chronological in nature.

Overall:  This was an excellent film sharing an amazing story about how World War II was shortened.

Leap Year

First Hit: The film was reasonably entertaining even though the story was telegraphed and there were no surprises.

Amy Adams is a very fine actress. And without her in this film I’m sure I wouldn’t have found it entertaining at all.

She has an ability to express so many feelings and thoughts without dialogue which places her on the top shelf of today's actresses. Unfortunately this film doesn’t allow her to fully practice her craft.

The obvious story line for this film is that she plays a social climber with a long time boyfriend, whom she wants to marry, and accidentally finds someone else she wants to marry when she walks into a small town bar in Ireland.

The rest of the film is about entertaining the audience through pratfalls and trials and tribulations so that we care about the ending we already know is coming. Yes, the film is entertaining enough but something about the minimal amount of chemistry between Anna and Declan (Matthew Goode) kept me wondering why him. Yes, he is a solid sort of guy, is good looking, but I couldn’t really see what the attraction was for either of them.

However, this minimal chemistry was far more than the chemistry between Anna and her long time boyfriend Jeremy (played by Adam Scott). Their relationship felt like a business relationship and totally devoid of any deep romantic love. So, if Anna had to pick between the two men, it had to be Declan.

Adams made this film watchable; I just wish it would have been better written with deeper and more interesting character development. Goode’s performance was a little too distant for me and he didn’t bring much vibrancy to the role. However, I would have to say that much of his performance, or lack thereof, was probably due to the script and the mediocre direction received by Anand Tucker.

Overall: This is a quiet interruptible Sunday evening film or video with your girlfriend, lover or wife.