islandclaws

Didn't like this one at all. It played to every regurgitated Oscar bait cliche in the book, and it couldn't decide what kind of film it wanted to be. Is this about his life as a code breaker, or is it all about his homosexuality? The film seemed to play the latter close to the vest at times, then at others it wasn't nearly as inconspicuous. The flashbacks to his boyhood love brought only a sense of ennui, like we didn't know where that was going... and, consequently, it really went nowhere. All of the hackneyed scenes of discovery and conflict and quasi-romance felt like old hat. Then the ending, which glosses over what seems to be the most important part of his life's end by simply presenting a title card, makes it sound like the entire film was really about his sexuality. Was it? I feel like the whole "gay agenda" angle was simply a carrot dangling in front of Oscar voters' faces. The film barely touches upon all the persecution he endured, yet at the end we're supposed to be moved by events we hardly see? Blech.

bluetoast

Looking back, one of the cornier elements was when the "it's the people we expect the least from..." line was uttered like ten times.

islandclaws

Yea, my gf kept pointing that out. Ok, we get it Mr. Writer, you're really proud of that Hallmark line.

johnnysd

Saw it today thought it was excellent, though I would have liked to learn more about the machine in the movie. One of those movies that falls apart a little after a while when you start scrutinizing it unlike Whiplash.

OldBoy

Gonna see this tomorrow hopefully.

RichC2

While I thought it was well directed/acted/etc; the screenplay was pretty poor.

OldBoy

i liked this movie very much. very Beautiful Mindish in the way it was shot and the music cues. similar all the way around. i wasn't that fond of ABM, but this i enjoyed a lot.

Crocker Jarmen

It was too laid back for my taste, not cinematic enough, more like a Masterpiece TV series.

Didn't think the wrap around story of Turing being investigated for espionage worked at all. There's no mystery, the audience already knows what Turing was doing during the war, so all those present day scenes became unwelcome interruptions. If they wanted to have one scene at the beginning and end to frame the story, fine, but to keep cutting back to the cop's "investigation" was pointless.

davidh777

Saw this on Friday night, and expected an empty theater, but the theater was probably a third full.

I thought it was great. Cumberbatch was fantastic.

Funny aside: My kids wanted to see it because they're big Sherlock fans, but it's my philosophy to know as little as possible about a movie going in if I know I want to see it--and not to reveal anything to people I'm going with as well. My mother-in-law wasn't sure if she wanted to see it with us, so she asked what it was about. Not wanting to divulge much, I said "I think it's a historical drama." Of course my kids' red flags immediately went up. "What?! IT'S A HISTORICAL DRAMA?"

Turns out they loved it anyway, even being a historical drama!

Thing is, I'd heard during Oscar buzz that Cumberbatch was playing Alan Turing, and despite not knowing anything else about the film, that told me plenty. I'd seen Derek Jacobi play Turing on the London stage many years ago in a show called Breaking the Code (recorded and released on DVD, thankfully). The treatments were pretty different--I don't remember Keira Knightley's character, or there being a team at all--but both performances were riveting. I guess I'm one of the few people for whom the character name was a pretty significant piece of advance information.

Not to mention, the phrase was such a mouthful that I had to read it on Wikipedia to figure out what they were exactly saying, though the gist of it was easy enough to figure out.

Dan

Saw it. It was okay. I agree about that one line getting used too much. The jumps in time were just obnoxious. Knightly was great, as was Cumberbatch. And the guy from Alien 3.
The very last scene made me cringe due to the

james2025a

I really enjoyed the movie. I think Cumberbatch should be ahead of Eddie in the Oscar run (But if there were any justice Miles Tellar would win).

RichC2

It's a toss up between Michael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne at this point.

james2025a

I know.....Redmayne should get points deducted for his performance in Jupiter Ascending though. It would be nice to see Keaton win, but i still think Miles Tellar gave the best performance of the year in a leading role.

RichC2

Understandable.

I liked Miles Teller but something was missing from that performance for me, it was very good overall though. I didn't like Birdman but Keaton was great. I didn't like Theory of Everything but Redmayne did a good job. Benedict Cumberbatch was solid as Turing despite having to deliver some occasionally clunky dialog.

...man I sound picky as hell these days

wearetheborg

The deviations from what actually happened really irked me.
As a piece of fiction, it was a decent story; but "based on real events" quite terrible.
The fiction about Joan's puzzle solving skills being better than that of Turing, and the whole gay play at the end just made it seem like leftist propaganda.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imi..._Game#Accuracy

Baron Of Hell

Loved the movie. The only thing I didn't like was at one point information is gathered and the code breakers decide not to tell the military about it. The reason why they did this were given but I didn't see how the choice was for them to make.

bluetoast

Yeah, in reality that kind of decision making was way above their pay grade.

wendersfan

Finally saw this movie yesterday, and I have to say, it's really illustrative of how frustrating the film-watching experience can be for me. Everything superficial about the movie was top-notch - the production values, the acting, all that, was great. But ultimately it's an absolutely hollow, empty endeavor. There's no (real) dramatic conflict, and, as stated above, almost all the presented conflict is false. I tend to dislike movies based on "real" events, and this is why. I felt the exact same way about Selma, as it happens.

Shannon Nutt

I watched this over the weekend and loved it. The screenplay and performances are brilliant. One of the few movies in recent memory where every single character is well-rounded and fleshed-out. I still haven't seen Selma, but I feel safe in saying this was my favorite movie of the nominated Best Pictures this year...in fact, this is probably one of my favorite historical dramas ever.

TheMovieman

Mostly agreed, especially about the made-up conflict. The story is already interesting enough that they didn't have to make up a fair amount of it.

JimRochester

As a piece of entertainment I liked it, but like most pictures about a central character based on a true story, the screenplay is still largely fiction and the central character is given more glamour than those around him. many of the same complaints of American Sinper. I know these going in and can still enjoy the movie. Others may find it's deviations too much to still enjoy.

TheMovieman

The problem is, you, and I would think most on these boards, know this but others will leave with a false impression of something that didn't need so much fictionalization as it was already a compelling story.