By Chase Joslin

Contains Spoilers – The Imitation Game contains wonderful acting, dramatic scenes, and tense moments. The movie covers some controversial topics and sheds light on the events that took place during the British Army’s attempts to crack the German enigma code. In this film, Benedict Cumberbatch gave one of his best performances to date.

The enigma code was an encryption method used by the German military to stop the British from intercepting and cracking their messages. Cracking this code would be the key to winning the war for the British, but it seemed impossible. That’s where Alan Turing came in.

Allen Turing, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, is a genius mathematician with a stiff upper lip. He is taken in by the British military to head the project of cracking the code. The movie, although correct, barely scratches the surface of Turing’s true complexity. In the film, his stubborn and quirky personality almost gets him fired from the project, but his team members vouch for his credibility and keep him on-board.

Controversy strikes when a spy is detected in the project and Alan is suspected. Although this did happen in real life, there is not much evidence as to when or what action was taken to find out who the spy was. This creates a problem because the movie really relied on this event to create some turbulence between the team members. Accuracy seemed to be put on the back burner for this particular event in order to create a better movie.

Aside from this, the movie stays true to historical facts and the delivery is as entertaining as it is informative. Although a few events were forced to be a little more dramatic than they should have been, the movie does a good job of informing the audience about the life of Alan Turing, who was the pioneer of the modern day computer.

Alan Turing was a very intelligent man who accomplished great things. Unfortunately he was punished for his sexual orientation, and the movie does an excellent job of covering the events that took place. During this period in history, homosexuality was considered dangerous to society and punishable by law. Alan was wrongly accused of a crime and was treated medically for his sexuality. The events that follow the enigma project are extremely accurate and well portrayed.

Although the directing had a few flaws, the phenomenal acting and dramatic story make this movie possibly one of the greatest of 2014. The Imitation Game has been nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Cumberbatch), and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Kiera Knightly).

The Academy Awards will air live on Sunday, Feb 22 at 7pm EST.

(Promotional photos and trailer are property of the Weinstein Company).