In a performance worthy of an Oscar^® nomination, Benedict Cumberbatch, stirs the emotions and captivates the senses in his portrayal of Alan Turing, a code-breaker at Britain’s top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, during World War II. Not only is his performance outstanding, but also the entire movie engulfs the viewer in a well-told story seldom seen in the cinema today.

As a cinephile, I seldom find more than two great films a year that captivate me to the point where I can’t pick it apart or judge its technical attributes in the first viewing. The Imitation Game is such a film. I was not only blown away by Cumberbatch’s performance, but each supporting cast member also intrigued me – A Casting Director’s dream team comes true.

The story is about Alan Turing, the creator of modern computer technology, who with a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, broke the Nazi codes and supplied the allies with critical information that ended the war two years earlier than thought possible.

With one of the most brilliant forms of flashbacks that I’ve seen, the film spans key periods in Turing’s life from his unhappy teenage years at boarding school and the triumph of his secret wartime work, to the tragedy of his post-war decline, following his conviction for a now outdated criminal offense.

I have no doubt that Cumberbatch will receive a best actor nod for his work in this film. And, for those who have seen his great performances in Star Trek and Sherlock Holmes, this film confirms that he not only has mastered his craft, but also has created such diverse characters that have jettisoned his career to the level of a legend.

He has become the Clark Gable or the Charlton Heston of this generation. His ability to create character was all the more amazing; as I was intrigued by how he played such a stoic and arrogant man that was loveable. By the end of the film you want to spare him from his fate, but history dictated the ending. The only thing remaining was a deep respect for the real Alan Turing. A man who lived up to the phrase: “Sometimes it is the people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one imagines.”

Copyright © 2015 by CJ Powers