The Imitation Game (8/10): Another Biopic powered by a strong lead performance from Cumberbatch

“Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.”

It is easy to fall in love with The Imitation Game because it is a fact-based film about a man who in Winston Churchill’s words “made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany.” Alan Turing’s story is one worth being portrayed on film because he played a huge role in shaping our history as one of the pioneers of modern-day computing. In school we are all taught what a huge factor the soldiers and allied forces played in winning the war after the Normandy landings, but little is known about these code breakers that were able to crack the unbreakable Enigma machine that the Germans used during the War. From the opening scene, Norwegian director Morten Tyldum (Headhunters), catches our attention and delivers a powerful (although by the books) biopic. The film isn’t groundbreaking and it follows most of the genre conventions biopics do, but it does so through some great performances and a solid production design that immerses us into the decades of the 40’s and 50’s. The film is told in non-linear fashion beginning with how Alan began being investigated by the Brtish authorities for indecent behavior. It later goes back 10 years to when Britain was at war with Nazi Germany and where Alan Turing began working with other scholars trying to crack the enemy’s communication codes. The film jumps back and forth as we also get some background information of Alan’s youth where he was introduced to the world of codes and cyphering. Alan’s story is fascinating and deserves a big screen adaptation as strong as this one because despite being a genius and having saved thousands of lives by shortening the war, he was disgraced and shamed for his homosexual behavior when he should’ve been hailed as a war hero. The film’s greatest strength is the inspiring fact-based story itself.

Benedict Cumberbatch has delivered several groundbreaking performances over his career, but I doubt he’s been as great as he is in The Imitation Game. Cumberbatch transforms himself completely and becomes Alan Turing. He invested himself for this role and it completely payed off. He portrays the conflicting emotions and inner turmoil of his character in an authentic and realistic way. Cumberbatch and Tyldum do an amazing job of honoring a man who never received the credit he deserved during his lifetime. Cumberbatch’s performance and Tyldum’s attention to detail in this period drama is what stands out other than the inspiring story adapted by Graham Moore. Keira Knightley and Mark Strong both deliver solid supporting performances as well. Knightley has received a lot of praise for her role here and deservedly so, but I was most pleased with Strong’s strong performance as the MI6 director, Stewart Menzies. It’s hard not to enjoy this film considering its story alone is fascinating, but Tyldum does deliver a solid biopic by working with a talented cast, having an eye for period detail, and hiring Alexandre Desplat as the composer giving the already emotional and touching story more depth.

My Review: Grand Piano (3/10)

"If you miss a note, you're dead."

Not only does Grand Piano miss a note, it misses on nearly every note beginning with a very laughable plot and some pretty bad performances. Directed by Spanish composer Eugenio Mira (Agnosia and The Birthday) and written by Damien Chazelle (who recently won at Sundance for his direction in Whiplash), Grand Piano is a thriller that has a Phone Booth vibe to it by centering the action in a single location. The problem I had with this film is that I never felt the tension or the suspense because I never believed these were real characters or believable situations. I am on the minority here because a lot of critics were impressed with the De Palma like style of the film, but I found the entire action and suspense scenes completely ridiculous. John Cusack is no Kiefer Sutherland and his voice work here didn't impress me at all. The script also explains everything to the audience so shamefully like if we were stupid and needed everything to be spelled out for us in order to understand. I can't believe the hype this film has been getting because I found it to be the first truly bad film of 2014. Despite some nice camera work and style, there is nothing else to recommend here.

Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) is a very talented concert pianist who has kept away from the spotlight for more than five years after having messed up during an important presentation. He was playing one of his mentor's compositions which only he and his mentor were considered talented enough to play. However after his failure he decided to retire, but now has accepted to come back and face his stage fright in honor of his mentor who has passed away. He is accompanied by his wife, Emma (Kerry Bishe), a famous actress who also has an angelic voice. Once the concert begins, he discovers a strange note on his music sheet threatening his life. If he messes up a note he and his beautiful wife will be killed. Tom discovers that Clem (John Cusack) is the man threatening him with a sniper rifle aimed at him while he is given instructions by him through an ear piece. All he can do is keep on playing and try not to mess up a single note. 

Grand Piano at least has a good musical score, but every time Mira tried to build the tension I couldn't believe how ridiculous the premise was. I wasn't a fan of Elijah Wood's wooden performance either and didn't find any redeeming performance from the entire cast. The climax at the end was also extremely laughable, the facial expressions were completely over the top. The films is extremely short as well, if you don't include the long credits the running time is less than 80 minutes. This might have been an interesting idea for a short film, but at 80 minutes it felt extremely long.