crash/burn

There is something disconcertingly unsatisfying in the fact that the complex life of master mathematician, cryptanalyst and key figure in the outcome of World War II, Alan Turing (played by a magnificent Benedict Cumberbatch), is relayed here in such formulaic fashion. Turing was an enigmatic man: fiercely intelligent but emotionally distant, impersonal and difficult — yet his very genius relied on him being just so. While Morten Tyldum does attempt to unravel Turing’s tale and character by touching on his formative years at school and his ultimately tragic postwar fate, the focus here is on Turing’s work at Bletchley Park during World War II and his pioneering work on cracking the Enigma code.

Tyldum might have been best served sticking to that aspect of Turing’s story alone, as the sporadic flashbacks to his school days add little texture, while the postwar scenes are a diversion that only serves to highlight the eventual injustice afforded to a war hero on the basis of his homosexuality. Of course, Turing’s sexuality was a key aspect of his character, yet it is glossed over to such an extent that it sits rather uncomfortably.