Movie Review Imitation Game

Imitation Game (2014) 

Directed by Morten Tyldum 

Written by Graham Moore 

Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance

Release Date November 28th, 2014 

Published November 25th, 2014 

"Sometimes it is the very people no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine."

The above line is a lovely bit of inspirational sentiment. I ask you to say it aloud to yourself. Now, imagine that line used by an actor in a movie as a bit of dialogue. It's clunky. Even in the sonorous tones of Benedict Cumberbatch in "The Imitation Game," the line sounds like someone banging a gong rather than speaking; it thuds loudly and is exposed as sentimental claptrap. 

Too much of writer/director Morton Tyldum's take on the life of legendary mathematician Alan Turing in "The Imitation Game" lands with the same kind of thud. This conventional biopic about a highly unconventional man spends a great deal of time playing at being a military thriller when it should have been a subversive, rebellious story of a complicated and tragic anti-hero. 

The failure of "The Imitation Game" cannot be laid at the feet of star Benedict Cumberbatch, who enlivens Alan Turing with great vigor and offbeat tics that are fitting with the picture of a man few people liked or understood. Cumberbatch could very well have given us the Turing biopic the world needs. "The Imitation Game" just simply is not it. 

The movie skirts Turing’s life. We see him as a World War II codebreaker, who personally earned the approval (NOT SURE BECAUSE I HAVEN’T SEEN IT YET) of Winston Churchill himself. We flash back to one of Turing's formative relationships as a closeted homosexual, and flash forward to Turing's arrest for indecency that eventually led to his alleged suicide.

There is a rich amount of story to tell here. Sadly, director Tyldum gets caught up in only the most audience-friendly aspect: World War II. 

Yes, what Turing did during the war is a remarkable and important piece of history. In short order, Turing created a machine that won World War II by cracking Germany's legendary Enigma machine. And he invented what would come to be the very first computer. Turing was the first to create a machine which, independently of human manipulation, solved equations and produced data. It's completely astounding. Yet, in "The Imitation Game," it is reduced to the function of a thriller plot involving double agents and MI6. 

The greatest injustice of "The Imitation Game" is saved for Turing's personal life. Turing was a homosexual in England when homosexuals were persecuted. In 1954 Turing was arrested for indecency after a male prostitute admitted to having been with Turing and attempted to rob Turing's home. Turing was forced to agree to chemical castration to avoid jail time. The subsequent treatment is said to have led to his depression and eventual suicide. 

Turing's death is a grotesque tragedy. But the film tosses it off in the final minutes with barely a comment. Why? My feeling is that the filmmakers and the studio lack conviction and fortitude. The thriller stuff, the World War II heroism and Sheldon Cooper-esque comedy about Turing's lack of social skills were an easier sell to a mass audience than the far bleaker but more interesting tragedy of Turing's death. 

In the end, "The Imitation Game" takes the easy way out. The filmmakers set up the most audience-friendly take on Turing, depicting his homosexuality and tragic death as inconvenient plot points on the way to the box office. What a shame. Here's hoping we get the Turing movie we deserve someday instead of this pale “Imitation.”

Movie Review Passengers

Passengers (2016) 

Directed Morten Tyldum 

Written by John Spaihts 

Starring Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Ray Liotta, Michael Sheen 

Release Date December 21st, 2016 

Published December 20th, 2016 

I really wanted to like Passengers, the new sci-fi adventure starring Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence. I am a big fan of both Pratt and Lawrence, each of whom are veterans of the blockbuster genre having starred in Guardians of the Galaxy and The Hunger Games respectively. Unfortunately, Passengers sticks Pratt and Lawrence with one majorly flawed story choice that even their charm cannot overcome. 

Chris Pratt, dialing back on his usual Chris Pratt schtick to a welcome degree, plays Jim Spencer, a mechanic who has signed up to travel to a new space colony, a journey that is supposed to last 120 years. Jim is supposed to be in hibernation during the entire trip but a malfunction wakes him up after only 30 years. Alone, Jim at first tries to get his sleeping pod working again. When that fails he begins to get a tad stir crazy. 

With a robot bartender named Arthur (Michael Sheen) as his only friend, Jim begins to think about doing something terrible, waking up another passenger. He even has his eye on one in particular, Aurora, played by Jennifer Lawrence. After reading her file in the ship's archives, Jim begins to fall for Aurora but he knows that waking her up is basically a death sentence. 

I won't tell you whether it is Jim or some other circumstance that leads to it, but, indeed Aurora is awakened and after a short while of rehashing Jim's failed attempts at restarting the sleep pods, she resigns herself to Jim as her only companion and the two begin developing a relationship. Naturally, their idyll will have to be disrupted and when another pod fails we begin to find out just how much trouble our heroes are in for. 

The major flaw of Passengers is one that could have easily been avoided. A simple rewrite of the script, one simple decision by the writer or director, and a major flaw could have been corrected. Unfortunately, Director Morton Tyldum apparently preferred the forced and predictable drama of this flawed choice over something more satisfying and less damaging to one of our main characters. 

Sorry to have to dance around the problem so much but I don't feel it is my place to spoil this movie for people who still want to give it a chance. The film does still have two incredibly appealing leads and they are beautiful to look at, especially when they begin to fall for each other. There are other positives as well such as Michael Sheen's robot supporting player and the ship sets which have both a modern gleam and an old school Kubrickian-sci-fi majesty to them. 

In the end, Passengers is not a bad movie, just one that is ruined by one silly, kinda creepy, poor storytelling decision that leads to a lot of false, unnecessary and predictable melodrama, all of which could have been easily avoided. This movie could have played out in much the same way that it does without this one stupid plot contrivance.