I know it's only January, but I stand by that statement. Even going back twelve months, it's still the second best movie, sitting just behind Guardians Of The Galaxy.
This is a great movie to watch, and I want to emphasize the term "Movie", as opposed to a historically accurate documentary, because, as a movie, it is essentially a fairy story based on some real life events that happened at some point in time. I've read the criticism about the historical inaccuracies of this film, but a cinematic film has to take a specific form in order to work as a two piece of storytelling. Therefore, it's impossible to fit everything and everybody in. If you did, you would end up with something totally incomprehensible and unwatchable. Events (and people too) have to be compressed, or even invented in order to drive the narrative towards a conclusion two hours later. I fully understand that people were offended by some of the things in this movie, but for me, it inspired me to do some research and discover the real truth for myself (the Internet is very good at allowing you you to do that).
This movie has three things that I have a big interest in: Computing history, Cryptography, and Britain in World War II, particularly the Battle Of Britain period. Therefore this movie hits the right notes for me. The movie looks fantastic.
The story line switches frequently between three time periods, but it is done so cleverly that you are never left confused about just where you are. The bulk of the story takes place during the second world war.
The acting in this film is the highlight, Benedict Cumberbatch, who happens to be my favourite actor at the moment (primarily because of Sherlock and Star Trek), and Mark Strong gives a suitable mysterious performance as the MI6 guy. The actor playing a young Alan Turing, Alex Lawther, did a pretty good job as well.
Turing's code breaking machine, the Bombe (strangely named Christopher in the movie):
My conclusion: Great movie, not entirely accurate, but close enough to give a a real feel for the character of Alan Turing.
I'm off the read Andrew Hodge's book now...
