Review of The Imitation Game

It's an unfortunate truism nowadays that any major film production in the UK must at least try to secure US funding, and failing that, aim in part at US audiences to have a hope of recouping production costs. The Imitation Game is a prime example of this phenomenon. The fact that this mess garnered an Oscar is testament to where the movie was aimed at, and apparently hit its target.

The British film industry and production talent is capable of creating exquisite productions and with great casting. UK hosts some of the best acting talent in the world. Combined with a usable screenplay, it can make compelling cinema. The screenplay for this effort uses the mechanism of three story lines of the principle character separated by time (schooldays, Bletchley days and final police investigation of homosexual activity). This could have been fine, except for the screenwriter's desire to overly write in melodrama where there was none, additional fictional characters as plot devices, etc.. the acting is good, Cumberbach does a good job of effecting Turing as he's been described in the past to me.

however...

The result is a movie that I had trouble watching. Not recommended, and I'm hoping for better stuff coming out of the UK.