--- title: Review: The Imitation Game description: Benedict Cumberbatch embodies the isolation of a man with a machine-like mind canonical: https://time.com/3596961/review-the-imitation-game/ author: Richard Corliss article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-20T11:36:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:06:59.895Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Review: The Imitation Game og:description: Benedict Cumberbatch embodies the isolation of a man with a machine-like mind og:url: https://time.com/3596961/review-the-imitation-game/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte397ae2a559efe3a/698766d906f2c1a994332098/the-imitation-game.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Benedict Cumberbatch in The Imitation Game og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Review: The Imitation Game twitter:description: Benedict Cumberbatch embodies the isolation of a man with a machine-like mind twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte397ae2a559efe3a/698766d906f2c1a994332098/the-imitation-game.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Review: _The Imitation Game_: Dancing With Dr. Strange > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [Richard Corliss](https://time.com/author/richard-corliss/) ## Richard Corliss Nov 20, 2014 11:36 AM UTC  Benedict Cumberbatch in 'The Imitation Game' Benedict Cumberbatch in 'The Imitation Game'Jack English—The Weinstein Company by [Richard Corliss](https://time.com/author/richard-corliss/) ## Richard Corliss Nov 20, 2014 11:36 AM UTC Cumberbatch: It sounds like something you’d find in an eccentric prelate’s vegetable garden. Benedict’s mother Wanda Ventham advised him to choose a moniker less … cumbersome … for his acting career; his father went by the stage name Timothy Carlton. But the young man must have appreciated the curious loftiness of this word, which comes from Old English and loosely means “stream in a valley.” And after all, the name was his. So he found roles suitable for a Benedict Cumberbatch: men above and apart, like Sherlock Holmes in the BBC series, Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate, Stephen Hawking in a TV movie. Fantasy filmmakers recognized his intimidating radiance and cast him as Khan in Star Trek Into Darkness and the Necromancer and Smaug in the Hobbit movies. Soon he will be Marvel’s Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange. Alan Turing in The Imitation Game may be the actor’s oddest, fullest, most Cumberbatchian character yet. The Cambridge genius who fathered the modern computer, known as the Turing machine–and who presciently asked, “What if only a machine could defeat another machine?”–seems part machine himself. Carrying himself with the hauteur of some creature from an advanced species on its first trip to Earth, he joins the Bletchley Park team charged with breaking the Nazis’ devious Enigma code and airily dismisses the theories of team leader Hugh Alexander (Matthew Goode), while defying the orders of Army Commander Denniston (Charles Dance) by going directly to Winston Churchill. A marathoner as well as a mathematician, Turing is the lonely long-distance runner who intellectually laps his colleagues while insisting on making all the crucial decisions. Why? “Because no one else can.” They are merely clever; he is brilliant. And in wartime, when results trump politesse, brilliance wins. On its bright face, The Imitation Game, written by Graham Moore and directed by Morten Tyldum, fits into that cozy genre of tortured-genius biopics that sprout like kudzu just in time for the Oscars. But that’s not fair to the film, which outthinks and outplays other examples of the genre (The King’s Speech, The Theory of Everything) just as Turing outraced those around him. For this is a superhero movie of the mind. Unlike the Marvel troupe, whose skills are physical and endlessly watchable, Turing makes magic in his head. The beautiful wheels spin inside; that’s where he flies. And he defeats the villains of unsolvable equations not with a punch but with a keypunch. The “action” here is Turing tinkering with his machine. Or simply thinking–which, as Cumberbatch portrays it, is adventure of the highest order. The actor doesn’t play Turing so much as inhabit him, bravely and sympathetically but without mediation; that’s your job. He recognizes that this supernal machine had a flaw, or thought it did. Turing’s Achilles heel was his heart, and his shielding his sexuality from his colleagues helps explain his emotional reticence, as the bullying he suffered at school almost justifies the pleasure he takes in being top dog at Bletchley Park. He even proposes marriage to the Enigma team’s one woman, Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley), as a cover for homosexual activities that were illegal in Britain throughout his life, and the penalties for which hastened his death. This superhero is really a tragic hero, doomed not by his “crime” but by society’s ignorant prejudice. Critics won’t need a Turing machine to pick one of the most smartly judged, truly feeling movies of the year or its most towering, magnetic performance. And though the star’s achievement should be its own reward, he is sure to receive many prizes this Oscar season. He deserves a Cumberbatch of them. ### Benedict Cumberbatch Roles You Didn’t Know About  Van Gogh: Painted with Words This 2010 docu-drama by the BBC starred Cumberbatch as the tormented Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. BBC  The Other Boleyn Girl Cumberbatch plays William Carey, a courtier and husband to Mary Boleyn (Scarlett Johansson) in this 2008 historical drama pic. Columbia  Amazing Grace Cumberbatch played William Pitt the Younger, the youngest ever Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in this 2006 drama about banning the slave trade in the British Empire. Samuel Goldwyn  Creation Cumberbatch (right) played Joseph Dalton Hooker, an esteemed British botanist and close friend of Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany), in this 2009 British film about Darwin. Newmarket  Stuart: A Life Backwards This 2007 television drama co-produced by the BBC and HBO starred Tom Hardy as the titular character Stuart Shorter, a homeless activist, with Cumberbatch as Alexander Masters, an author and friend of Stuart. HBO  Parade's End The BBC and HBO teamed up for another Cumberbatch series in 2012 with Parade’s End which saw the actor play Christopher Tietjens, an English aristocrat and statistician for the British government. BBC  War Horse Cumberbatch (left) takes on the role of Major Jamie Stewart, the leader of a cavalry company in World War I in this 2011 war drama by Spielberg. Disney  Atonement Marking one of his creepier roles, Cumberbatch played a rapist named Paul Marshall in this 2007 British drama that starred James McAvoy and Keira Knightley. Universal  Fortysomething Cumberbatch plays Rory, the son of Paul Slippery (Hugh Laurie), in this six episode 2003 British comedy television series. ITV  Starter for 10 This 2006 British comedy had Cumberbatch (second from right) take on the role of Patrick Watts, the smug team captain for a British game show called University Challenge. 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