Unraveling Mysteries

The Imitation Game is an engrossing film that deals with solving mysteries of various sorts. On the surface level, there is the puzzle of the German war code that must be solved if England and the Allies are to win World War ll. There is also the mystery of how Alan Turing, the leader of the team assigned to unraveling this code, has to deal with the fact that he is a homosexual, who must, for all intents and purposes, hide this fact, for fear of retribution and possible punishment. It's a valuable film experience, one that has its slip ups at times, but one that ultimately succeeds in its quest to tell the story of this complex and troubled individual.

Right from the beginning of this story, Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) lets his superior know how valuable he is as a brilliant mathematician for the ultimate goal of solving the German Enigma machine that sends out coded messages that have proven impossible to decipher, as there are tens of millions of possible combinations of letters. Cocky and moody, Turing is disliked by his fellow team members; Turing himself believes that some of them are not worthy of this demanding task. He takes the step of contacting Winston Churchill to request that he be the leader of this project, thus enabling him to fire and hire others as he pleases. He is granted this request, as well as an appeal for funds, so he can build a machine that will read the coded messages; this machine was one of the first computers.

His method of hiring new agents for his project is to run a difficult crossword puzzle in the newspaper; those who solve it are invited to come on for another word test. One of the individuals who passes this test - in record time - is Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), who will soon win the heart of Turing. It is her intellect and charm that win Turing over and help him continue with his work. She convinces Turing to be a bit more understanding with his fellow code solvers, so as to win their trust. Their relationship is at the heart of this film.

There have been any number of critics that have complained about historical inaccuracies in this film. For my part, I don't care if there has been some alteration of specific events; this is a filmed version of this story and not a documentary. The filmmakers are most interested in Turing's story and personality - how did he create his machine, how does he, as a gay man, handle himself in a relationship with a woman? Yes, I would have liked to learn more about the inner details of his machine - the reproduction is fascinating with all those wheels and wires - what is going on here and how does it work? That is a problem, but the screenplay more than makes up for this shortcoming by focusing more on Turing himself.

As Turing, Cumberbatch is brilliant portraying this complex and troubled man. His face captures us and makes us feel empathy for the mathematician; his voice is quiet, yet assured and his mannerisms avoid the usual clichés. He walks a tightrope between self-assuredness and doubt that he can solve this project; when he has moments of success, they are quiet triumphs for the most part; Cumberbatch communicates Turing's emotions beautifully, either by a subtle shift in posture or movement of his eyes. This is an outstanding performance - the actor's work is the strongest recommendation of this film. You never see his acting technique on display - he's simply believable every moment he's on the screen.

The other notable performance is by Knightley. The camera loves her face; she is able to win us over the first time we see her on screen. She has excellent chemistry with Cumberbatch (and in reality, everyone else in her scenes) and is the voice of reason and well as a warm ray of light as opposed to the coldness of Turing in many scenes. One wishes however, that she was given more to do than what's written for her in the screenplay.

The one major fault I have with the film is the implementation of flashbacks of Turing's school days as a young man. We learn that he was mistreated by many of his classmates, who found him an outsider, based on his odd behavior (one scene has him separating the peas from the carrots on his plate). We also discover his relationship with another quiet boy who has an intellect similar to that of Turing. These scenes really explain little - save for one defining moment; it would have been better to eliminate these scenes, as the screenplay as well as Cumberbatch's performance tell us all we need to know how singular the character of Alan Turing truly is.


Thankfully the strengths of The Imitation Game far outweigh its flaws. Morton Tyldum's direction is effective and concise, while the cinematography of Oscar Faura and the costume designs of Sammy Sheldon are particularly handsome and appropriate. This is a film of priorities; Turing had to sacrifice his personal pleasures for the good of his country; ironically, his country punished him later in his life. This idea carries the film and carries it well; life for all of us is full of disappointments. It's how we deal with them that makes the difference.

Hidden Thoughts and Desires

"Sometimes you have to do something terrible to go on living." - Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender)


That terrible thing is one of the central points of A Dangerous Method, the engrossing new film from David Cronenberg. Pitting doctor against patient and doctor against doctor, the film touches upon hurt feelings, passions and hidden thoughts that eventually must emerge from the film's main characters if they indeed are to continue to face life and all its challenges.

The film deals with the case of Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley), a troubled young woman suffering from neuroses, who seeks a cure from Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender). The time is 1904 and the setting is Jung's office in a lovely forest in Switzerland. As Jung initially questions Spielrein, she stammers and thrusts her jaw forward, as though possessed by the devil. Clearly puzzled by her physical mannerisms as well as her inner demons, Jung decides that he will use the newly developed "talking cure"- the foundation of psychoanalytic treatment at the time, as created by Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) - as his basis for treating this woman.

As Jung starts to unravel the deep neuroses inside Spielrein, he notices how intelligent and perceptive she is and asks her to assist him with some of his patients. The first case she works on is a practice one, where Jung has his wife hooked up to a machine that will record her blood pressure and heart beat - sort of an early day lie detector - that he uses along with word association. As Spielrein assists, she notes that Jung's wife was hesitant in answering certain questions about sex. She wonders if Jung has a happy marriage and soon afterwards, acts on this, as she passionately kisses him.

Jung realizes he must not have an affair with one of his patients, but he is clearly attracted to her and despite his inner doubts, goes ahead and sleeps with her. This behavior goes on for some time, with Jung finally letting Spielrein know that he cannot continue with this situation. As she has the upper hand on him, she suggests that he put all the details of this affair in a letter to Sigmund Freud in Vienna.

Freud had become a mentor and somewhat of a father figure to Jung, who had contradictory feelings about him. Clearly he respected Freud's original work, but he was also dismayed at how Freud tied in everything to sex. Now that Jung himself has had sex with a patient, he has left himself open to a brutally honest analysis from Freud and their friendship is tested.

Meanwhile, Spielrein who is now cured, has gone on to study pyschoanalysis and has published papers that are respected by Freud. The film at this point turns to examine how she came between Freud and Jung on the specific (the affair between Jung and her) and the general (which one would trust her and vice versa).

The screenplay is an intelligent one, adapted by Christopher Hampton from his play, The Talking Cure, which was itself adapted from the non-fiction book A Most Dangerous Method, written by John Kerr. All three main characters are real-life individuals (with Freud and Jung being world famous) and each is given his or her due here as three-dimensional characters. Naturally, having actors of this caliber is a great aide to this work and each one turns in an expert performance. Knightley takes chances with her role, not afraid to look unattractive; by the film's end she generates a lovely warmth. Fassbender exudes a quiet approach, one that appears quite confident on the outside, while actually full of doubt on the inside. Mortensen delivers my favorite performance in the film, giving us a Freud of great dignity and polish; given this man's public notoriety over the past century, it's nice to see Mortensen deliver such an understated turn.

I've not been that big a fan of Cronenberg in the past; much of that having to do with his use of extreme violence to spice up his films. How nice then for the director to take on a project such as this, a thinking man's story of lust, deception and professional relationships. Cronenberg lets the storylines play out, never overwhelming us with obvious symbolism, as might have been so easy to do, given the role of psychoanalysis in this work. His cinematographer Peter Suschitsky and he give us some lovely images, including Jung and Spielrein walking along a bridge in the forest and Freud lying down in Jung's sailboat that is tranversing a sun-splashed lake.

The ending of the film is a graceful one, as Spielrein, now a successful child psychologist meets with Jung, who has suffered a falling out with Freud. She clearly has the upper hand now, a 180-degree turn around from when they first met. Yet they treat each others as equal and each uncovers some of the secrets to living life in a meaningful way. Suppressing certain thoughts and behavior may be rational, but as we learn from all three characters, it is not always healthy.