Review of "The Imitation Game" : 2014 Film (8/10 IMDb)

This is a World War II based drama about a brilliant British team that cracked Nazi Germany's Enigma code. “Sometimes, it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one imagines,” says the movie's inspirational rallying cry, which is repeated three times in case you miss it and would be excellent for embossing on a holly-bedecked greeting card.

Also it examines the terrible circumstances behind Alan Turing, the film's key hero, who leads the Allies to victory by designing a breakthrough machine that would usher in the computer age. Before his suicide in 1954, he was publicly ridiculed and viciously punished for participating in homosexual conduct, which was illegal in England at the time.

Instead of receiving a chest full of medals, the closeted genius who saved countless lives by considerably shortening the war was ruthlessly castrated instead of serving time in prison.Even though he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his efforts in 1945, nobody realised the depth of his wartime exploits because much of the information was kept hidden for 50 years. In 2013, Queen Elizabeth granted him an official pardon for his crimes—a case of too little, too late.

Clarke and Turing have some of the best scenes, in which they confide in one another as equals, despite the fact that they must both conceal their true identities. Turing is envious as Clarke easily attracts Alexander, a shameless pickup artist, in one of the more poignant scenes. “I'm a woman in a man's job,” Clarke says with Knightley's posh voice when Turing asks her how she so easily made him like her. I don't have the privilege of being a jerk.” Of course, the "like you" at the end of the phrase is implicit.