The Imitation Game

[CormoranStrike]

I saw this movie at the cinema yesterday - it was excellent.

Benedict Cumberbatch gives an amazing performance, as does Keira Knightley.

It's a great story movingly, and entertainingly, told.

Has one else seen it yet?

Wonderfully appropriate autocorrect there! Yes I loved it. Wanted much more detail on the code cracking as I'm a maths geek.

Later read they'd changed the story in what seemed unnecessary ways, which seems a shame. Fantastic performances all round.

I've seen it & loved it!
I was wondering what was made up & what was real. In the credits it said it was based on a book. So from reality to a book to a screenplay to a film. Scope for lots of changes I think.

Benedict was marvellous. Loved the running scenes
Kiera was great too.

I didn't realise how much impact they had on the war. I'm glad he got a pardon, but it was very sad he died so young.

Dd (12) and I have seen it. Totally agree - it was great. We loved it.

Interested to know what you learnt about bits being changed Cooroo. Do share! We were fascinated by the whole thing.

I loved it too. I went to Bletchley Park earlier this year so i knew a lot about the code stuff already. I'd definitely recommend a visit if you can.

I thought benedict was ace!

I've been rooting around a bit to check what I'd read about inaccuracies and am a little happier about them now!

The first Bombe was not called Christopher, but Victory. But I suppose they were making a point about how his work substituted for human relationships. The entire team approached Churchill over the head of Tywin Lannister Commander Denniston, not an isolated Turing. Sherborne school handled Christopher's death more kindly than was portrayed, Turing knew he was ill and might die and the announcement was made to the whole school. But it was a trauma so ok. Also apparently he didn't work with the spy and is unlikely ever to have met him. But ok, the character was real so they shoe-horned him in.

I don't think these are huge issues and they certainly didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film! But I am fascinated by the detailed story of the code breaking and would have loved a film that dwelt on that. That film would probably have made rather less money!

Whoops re the auto correct

I am not too bothered about things changed to make the story flow, it's not a documentary.

Saw it this week and really enjoyed it. Thought BC played the role very well. And KK!

I loved it too.

Brilliant acting all round. It made me cry more than once .

Also loved it, the whole code breaking is fascinating. Also very sad.

Cooroo, was the character of Kiera Knightley also shoed in? I don't remember her from previous books (but I read those books and papers ages ago so, it may be my memory failing...)

I read her character was real & it was so terribly sexist then. She couldnt even be paid for the right grade as women weren't allowed to officially do that job. So she was paid top whack as a linguist with no other language skills!

Cooroo - thanks for the info. Really interesting. It doesn't bother me that they made changes I'm just interested to know. I am rubbish at general history knowledge so films or dramas based on reality are the way I learn. Once I get the basic story it's then fascinating to build in the rest.

whilst it was true that the info they decrypted was used sparingly to avoid giving away the "secret" that they'd cracked Enigma, it wasn't the codebreakers who made the decisions about which ones to act upon. Other than that, from the Bletchley point of view it was pretty decent historically. Thought BC and KK were good (and i usually loathe her) and the youngl ad playing him as a 13 yo was excellent.

Went last night with 18 year old DS. Fab! We both really enjoyed it. Having watched the trailers, we've decided our next joint cinema outing will be to see Paddington Bear :)

I thought this was excellent...great individual performances & very evocative of the time. Sobering to think how attitudes have changed, it really wasn't that long ago. Yes to Paddington next - looks hilarious!

It was brilliant!

I don't think the whole eventual decoding was based on a single phrase but rather looking for common phrases in general, but that didn't detract.

We're planning to go if we can get time when DS2 is at nursery and we are both free! Went to Bletchley Park in half term and it was brilliant. I find it fascinating anyway even without a big film. They were just finishing an exhibition to tie in with the film and were expecting record visitor numbers.

I saw it today - loved it. The boy who played the young Turin was outstanding - that scene in the headmaster's office was just heart-breaking. Best film I've seen for ages.

I loved the bit at the end with the words on the screen saying- they called these Turin machines, we call them computers. And I had my iPhone in my coat pocket. Which is basically a computer. Mind blowing how far we have come since the war with computing.

I've asked so many people how computers work- like how does the screen know what to put in each pixel. No one can answer me! I think I want to take a computing course and work up to building a raspberry pi. And totally understand how it works, not just go - ah cool app and stay a dim wit.

I wonder even if in the future the people who can code will have higher status. There's an amazing project that the bill and Melinda gates foundation have done somewhere in Africa of little speakers that teach people things, that run on android. It's all so amazing

We just saw it and loved it, and also saw the trailer for Paddington.

We went to bletchley park last year and loved it!
So sad that someone who did basically turn around the war with his team was treated so appallingly and just basically denied and unprotected ...

The Bletchley Park tour was very good - I definitely recommend it.

I agree travail. Appallingly treated. A terrible tragedy.
Reinforces my belief that people are just people. Ie can't stand discrimination or not equal treatment/ rights for any reason.

Very good. Absorbing even with the factual changes.

PS Tom from Downton Abbey is in it!

Hello,
With the OP’s kind permission we’re sweeping this thread into our Movies topic.

I really enjoyed it - great performances (I'd watch old Cumbers in anything), beautifully made. Two hours just zipped by.

But even so it was a load of old hooey, really. All sort of false jeopardy created, RL events massively exaggerated. Even as I was watching and enjoying it I was thinking 'there is NO WAY this happened like that.'

It suffered from Brit Heritage Film Syndrome a bit I think: the assumption that the audience is a bit too thick to do any work for itself, or to cope with any nuance in the depiction of previous periods.