Cumberbatch helps elevate what could've been a rote boilerplate biopic into a film with the spark of a live wire.

| Jun 7, 2016

A moving tribute to an extraordinary man.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 19, 2015

What could have been a very dry and earnest film emerges, under the intelligent direction of Norwegian Morten Tyldum working from a screenplay by Graham Moore, as a gripping and still rather extraordinary story.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 5, 2015

The "action" here is Turing tinkering with his machine. Or simply thinking -- which, as Cumberbatch portrays it, is adventure of the highest order.

| Jan 4, 2015

We go into a movie knowing that the subject was as genius or a hero, a martyr or titan. We should leave with a more nuanced understanding of who he was, his complexities and flaws.

| Jan 4, 2015

For the filmmakers, there are simplifications that must have been inevitable, for dramatic and narrative purposes, when it comes to depicting the years of wartime work. But what of the other choices that have been made?

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 4, 2015

[Benedict Cumberbatch] has had a meteoric rise, and for good reason -- he's really good at what he does. Here, he does a lot with a little.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 4, 2015

Cumberbatch is the main event here, making something almost impossible (capturing such a man as Turing in a tidy two-hour package) look easy, important, and appropriately imperfect.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 4, 2015

It's mostly to Cumberbatch's credit that The Imitation Game plays like a solid, engaging historical drama, interesting enough to suit audiences that aren't interested in either World War II history or technology.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 4, 2015

This film about one of the past century's smartest humans at times treats its own audience like a classroom of remedial learners.

| Jan 4, 2015

It's a film about drive, about imagination, and how brilliance thrives outside the mainstream. These are common enough themes given uncommon purchase in a film about a man who likely saved millions of lives by never fitting in.

| Original Score: A | Jan 4, 2015

[Cumberbatch's] whose portrayal of the British mathematician and WWII code-smasher is a feat of nuanced intelligence, a portrait of anguish with hints of arid humor. And, yes, arrogance.

| Jan 4, 2015

Produced with a Masterpiece Theater eye for period detail, but also with a missionary's zeal to honor a wrongly dishonored man.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 25, 2014

Cumberbatch is moviedom's man of the moment, and with this painfully human performance, the actor who has specialized in difficult geniuses finally cracks the code of compassion.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 24, 2014

This film's overall success hangs on Cumberbatch and what is, to date, his finest performance on the big screen.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Dec 24, 2014

It would be hard to foul up the story of Alan Turing, and thankfully The Imitation Game doesn't.

| Original Score: A- | Dec 24, 2014

Turing may finally be getting what he deserves as the straightforward and well-acted The Imitation Game, featuring a strong performance from Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 24, 2014

"The Imitation Game" is both an education and a pleasure - and another chance to revel in what Cumberbatch can convey in eloquent silence.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 24, 2014

Cumberbatch's finely calibrated performance helps bring to life one of history's lesser-known stories and most shameful injustices.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 23, 2014

Consider the code cracked, translated, and laid out for all to see: different is special is good, and ordinary morality is a sham, anyway.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Dec 23, 2014