In a Perfect World...Nothing Like what occurs in Imitation Game could have ever happened. As this review is being written, the Presentation of this year´s Oscars is but a scant couple of hours away!

It is very easy to understand why Benedict Cumberbatch is one of the front-runners for Best Actor. As Alan Turing, a Cambridge professor who was anything but SIMPATICO, the British actor manages to inspire a great deal of audience empathy for a character who, had he been represented by a different actor, probably would not have been able to establish such a solid viewer connection!....

Now, under no circumstances, does my review purport to claim the film is 100% accurate as to every detail depicted! Of course not! Any cinematic endeavor is, by definition, a dramatazation of the events.

Certainly... IMITATION is no exception! It is a story that is INSPIRED by real events. Not intended to be taken in as a DOCUMENTARY!

As to the lead character´s faults or his sexuality, almost anyone who sees this film would testify as to its rather low key presentation and that is definitely rather discreet, by 21st Century standards! IMITATION... At least as far as I could see, seemed, more than anything else, rather taut and extremely entertaining! After all, isn´t that the essence of what CINEMA is SUPPOSED to be all about???

10**********... A truly rewarding and outstanding Film!

Alan Turing was a fascinating, complex person who deserves to be better known to the world. Likewise his story is important and deserves to be told rather than forgotten. Had high hopes for 'The Imitation Game', after hearing so many good things about it, and it ended up being one of my favourite films of 2014.

That 'The Imitation Game' is historically inaccurate and has distortions didn't offend me as much as some reviewers, biographical dramas are notorious for this so it's come to be expected by me (not that that is meant to be an excuse). All that was wanted was a film that made me think, moved me, was well made and well acted. 'The Imitation Game' was all those things and more.

It isn't perfect, the political elements are on the preachy side and there are a few strands that could have gone into more detail, Turing's sexuality should have gotten into more depth than it was.

However, 'The Imitation Game' is exceptionally well made. It's immaculately photographed and has some of the best production design of its best, especially in the costumes. The direction allows the film to be absorbing, while the music score is often hauntingly beautiful and never intrusive.

In terms of the script, 'The Imitation Game' does a wonderful job in provoking thought and providing emotional impact and nuances and fleshes the characters out with remarkable complexity. What could have been potentially dry treatment of the subject matter turned out to be fascinating, thrilling and very moving.

Benedict Cumberbatch gives his best performance of a very solid career, an outstanding portrayal that won't be forgotten for years to come. Keira Knightley is a sympathetic confidante and Charles Dance is excellent as always as his superior. The supporting cast are without complaint.

Overall, wonderful film and its acclaim is a long way from an enigma. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The British Official Secrets act prevented me as a kid growing up about Alan Turing. I would certainly have liked to know about him in my formative years on many levels. Over a 100 years after his birth he's a role model for gay geeks everywhere, but in his lifetime he would not have been known beyond his field of Mathematics.

Benedict Cumberbatch plays the enigmatic man Alan Turing who many consider the founder of computer science. He was also a tortured gay man in those days when sodomy laws were strictly enforced. A respected professor of Mathematics he volunteers for the war effort. Not satisfied with how codebreaking efforts were going he goes right to the top and the sheer brass and effrontery persuade Winston Churchill to put this man in charge.

I doubt Winston Churchill knew much more about what Alan Turing was talking about than I would now. But sometimes genius will out in just the way it's presented. I only wish we had gotten to see Churchill's reaction to Turing's now famous letter.

As we well know now with what has been declassified how Turing and his picked crew broke the Nazi code and with some well used and specific intelligence at propitious moments we were able to win the war in Europe. Part of that crew is Keira Knightley who wins a battle for feminism to be accepted in this all male bastion.

Keira and Ben's scenes have some real emotion to them. He confesses he's gay and she would still like to marry him as fascinated as she is by his sheer intellect. Cumberbatch made the right decision as so many gay men today still make the wrong one. He decides that marriage will just spread the heartache he has in not being able to live openly and proudly with whom he loves. For her role Keira Knightley got an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

When different players play the same individual at different stages of life I've thought that some recognition is due. In flashback scenes to Turing's prep school days we see the understated but beautifully played romantic involvement of Alex Lawther as young Turing and Jack Bannon as Christopher Morcum. Those two juveniles are nothing short of magnificent in what they do with the part. Young Morcum's death while still in prep school was a secret heartache he carried for the rest of his life.

The Imitation Game got several other Oscar nominations including Best Picture and took home one Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The saddest thing about Alan Turing is that he's one of a handful of people who ever existed of whom it could be said he bent the course of history and in his life he could receive no recognition for it. In fact we do see what did happen to him post World War II. Now his nation and the world can appreciate him for what he was and what he did.