Benedict Cumberbatch isn’t always a super hero or a super villain (for the former, see Marvel’s casting announcement today, for the latter see the last “Star Trek” film). In fact, most of the time he’s just a great actor in character dramas; it’s what he excels at. And while it’s only teased slightly in this clip, one of the more interesting elements of “The Imitation Game” is just how awkward, grating and difficult Cumberbatch is as the real-life unsung war hero and innovator Alan Turing. A brilliant mathematician, Turing is also —at least in the movie— so socially maladroit as to register on the Asperger’s spectrum. That’s genius for you.
Directed by Morten Tyldum and co-starring Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Allen Leech, Mark Strong and as featured in this clip former “Game Of Thrones” star Charles Dance, “The Imitation Game” centers on the efforts of cryptologists, lead by Alan Turing, to crack Germany’s purportedly unbreakable Enigma code during WWII (read our review). Here’s the official synopsis:
During the winter of 1952, British authorities entered the home of mathematician, cryptanalyst and war hero Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) to investigate a reported burglary. They instead ended up arresting Turing himself on charges of ‘gross indecency’, an accusation that would lead to his devastating conviction for the criminal offense of homosexuality – little did officials know, they were actually incriminating the pioneer of modern-day computing. Famously leading a motley group of scholars, linguists, chess champions and intelligence officers, he was credited with cracking the so-called unbreakable codes of Germany’s World War II Enigma machine. An intense and haunting portrayal of a brilliant, complicated man, THE IMITATION GAME follows a genius who under nail-biting pressure helped to shorten the war and, in turn, save thousands of lives.
The firs clip of the film has arrived and it shows Cumberbatch’s Turing in his first interview for the job, before he begins to alienate all his colleagues. “The Imitation Game” will be released on November 14th in the UK, and opens on November 21st in the U.S. Watch the clip below and check out many new photos from the film too.
