The Imitation Game (2014) (Movie Review)

Director: Morten Tyldum
Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightly
Duration: 1hr 54 mins

The first time I heard of The Imitation Game, I thought it had something to do with magic. Despite that it had nothing to do with magic; the film had the air of the magical about it. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the lead role as Alan, a genius mathematician and lover of puzzles. Alan, shares quite some characteristics with Cumberbatches’ other avatar, Sherlock. If you have seen Cumberbatchs’ prowess as Sherlock, you can easily imagine his effective depiction of Alan.
Alan is a brilliant mathematician looking to serve in British Intelligence. The setting of the film is the Second World War and the Brits are looking to bring down the expansive Germans. The key lies in the German secret communication codenamed ‘Enigma’. Successfully cracking Enigma will enable the Brits to foil the German plans and disturb their strategy. Alan’s penchant for puzzles and his lively intelligence make him a frontrunner for the job.

A select group of the most distinguished intellectuals is formed and entrusted the task of breaking Enigma. Alan brings to the group apart from his brilliance, his almost extreme eccentricity stemming from his introversion. His exclusive independence makes it hard for him to collaborate with the others giving rise to tension. After nearly being kicked out, he manages through influence not only to return to the group but also to be made its leader. He changes the composition of the group and hires a woman, Joan (Keira Knightly), who shows signs of having a bright mind.
The team begins anew and tirelessly works to break Enigma. Alan, in addition to breaking Enigma must also break out of his self-erected walls. Joan helps him become a new person by challenging him and guiding him. With her support, he builds a machine that instantly decodes Enigma’s messages. Despite the numerous difficulties and insults he faces along the way, he ploughs on persistently, even obstinately.

The film teaches the importance of believing in oneself and of the need for companionship and support. Hardwork and persistence are vital requirements for achieving success. The film is pretty long and can be dull at times. The lack of background music does not help. The story is well portrayed considering it is based on true events. The film inspires and touches a sensitive chord. “It is the people who no one imagined anything about who do the things no one imagined.”      


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Great Grand Masti 2 (2016) (Movie Review)

Image
Dir: Indra Kumar Starring: Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela Dur: 2 hrs 10 mins Genre: Comedy Rating: 1/10 Comment: The jokes, gestures and costumes are sexually suggestive. An absolute waste of time. “What an opening line”, you might think. But to say otherwise would be an absolute lie. This film is in fact, a great grand waste of time. It’s horrible whichever way you look at it. The story is weak and thrives on cheap thrills and sorry jokes. The actresses are no doubt eye-catching but the rest is all a blur. The comedy is in fact tragedy and the film attempts to play on the basest desires of man. It’s unbelievable that actors like Riteish and Vivek would do such a film. I am not a big fan of bollywood but I still feel bad when I see bollywood making films like these. All of a sudden, I see that sex is being propagated through Indian cinema. The views of sex are changing and filmmakers and actors are not hesitating to take on unconvent
Read more

St. Joseph: A Father after the Father's Heart (Book Review)

Image
  St. Joseph: A Father after the Father’s Heart , Hyderabad: Don Bosco Publishing House, 2021, Rs. 150, pp. 240. The book is a compilation of articles from various authors writing about qualities of St. Joseph. They have used the litany of St. Joseph as an index and have put together articles on each of the invocations. All the contributors are Salesians from different parts of India but there a couple of contributors from abroad as well. The book lends itself to be a souvenir of the Year of St. Joseph that Pope Francis declared. Let me start out by commenting on the quality of production. The paper is of good quality and so is the design and layout. It is neat and has an attractive cover. Coming to the content, it gets rather repetitive but that is understandable considering that there is so little Biblical foundation for an exposition of St. Joseph. The articles often reference Pope Francis’ letter Patris Corde and extensively utilize Pope St. John Paul II’s apostolic exhortatio
Read more

A Day with Don Bosco

                              Don Bosco was declared the Patron of Youth by Pope John Paul II in 1989. He received his mission: to be Father to the young, in a dream at the tender age of nine. He nurtured this call throughout his life and never wasted an opportunity to gather boys and direct them to God. He did not do this as a spiritual director, (at least no at first!) but rather as a friend, a companion and a seminarian. As a young boy, he would attract youngsters with his magic tricks, tightrope skills, games etc and then get them to recite the rosary with him or recount to them the Sunday sermon (which he remembered thanks to his prodigious memory). Already then, he had ingeniously found a way to combine religion and entertainment. His entertainment was necer for entertainment sake but rather a façade or an advertisment for religious instruction. Even as a young priest, boys would long for more than just a wekkly encounter with him. They loved him and found in him a friend w
Read more