Movie Review: 'The Imitation Game' Imitates Many Like it Before

The Benedict Cumberbatch Club decrypts German messages in "The Imitation Game"

Weinstein Company

The Imitation Game (2014, Directed by Morten Tyldum. U.K./U.S.A., English, Color, 114 minutes) As I headed into the theater to watch this film I did not plan to like it. From one viewing of the trailer a couple of months back I knew it was going to be a run-of-the-mill historic cliche about winning the war against the Nazis. When I left the theater, I got exactly that, but with an (unnecessary) brief look at the history of LGBT rights in the U.K., and a stupidly forced love story. It was everything I was expecting and more... and not in a good way.

This is the true story of a group of codebreakers at Bletchley Park in England assigned to decipher German messages from a machine called the Enigma. The eccentric and arrogantly annoying Alan Turing heads the group who would eventually end the war by at least two years because of their successful efforts. Their accomplishments should be heralded, but not this film.

While critic reviews are positive and audiences at film fests give it its top honors, this cliche-ridden film is nothing different than what has been shown over and over again.