Does a title make or break a film? No. So The Imitation Game's pretentiously inadequate title doesn't necessarily mean the film is a dud. But that's what it is.
The Imitation Game is Morten Tyldum's 4th feature film, and the first produced outside his native Norway, marking his accession to the Hollywood system. His previous indigenous output is completely unknown to the The Macmahonian.
The Imitation Game tells the true story of Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch, making faces), a mathematical genius endowed with a healthy dose of autism who contributed decisively to cracking the Enigma code used by the German military in World War Il. As what would basically have consisted of a few mathematicians and cryptographers squeezing their brains for months on end trying to crack Enigma might pose a difficult challenge in terms of dramatic presentation (except if one would stoop to “Eureka!” scenes and fight-against-the system – in the form of unsympathetic War office officials – clichés, of which there are a few in the film), Tyldum (or his scriptwriter, Graham Moore, in his 1st effort) opted for intercutting the main action with flashbacks to the 20s, when Turing was in boarding school (where his homosexual tendencies first emerged and where he suffered the death of a close friend which the film seeks to present as Turing's defining experience), and flash-forwards to the early 50s, when Turing was convicted for indecency and sentenced to hormone treatment, to “cure” him of homosexuality, which led him to suicide shortly after.
Alan Turing is a fascinating and tragic figure, whose role in probably saving millions of lives was only posthumously recognized, as the whole Enigma business remained secret for decades after the war. The Imitation Game tries to play both available cards, the code-breaking thriller and the personal melodrama, and botches both: narrative rhythm is diluted by the flashbacks and other shoehorned diversions, e. g. Turing's professional/love interest with fellow egghead Joan Clark (Keira Knightly), and Turing's suffering and social inadequacies are portrayed in a sedated textbook manner. Also, great iconic devices just there for the grabbing, like the Turing proto-computer used to decode Enigma (pictured left, and nicknamed “Christopher”, after Turing's beloved departed), are all but wasted.
All in all, sympathy-inspiring subject matter subject to formulaic direction and worthy, if slightly histrionic, acting, provide for lukewarm entertainment.