political | Peggy at the Movies

Note: “The Imitation Game” release date in the U.S. is November 28th, 2014 ~ this review contains no spoilers as the movie is based on historical fact already known.

Do you know who Alan Turing is? I’m going to guess not. After you watch this movie you will most likely be saddened by this fact as I know I was.

Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) was a master mathematician who finds himself plunged into the secret code-breaking underbelly world of Bletchley Circle in World War II when he’s hired by the British government – along with a team of code breakers – to crack Nazi Germany’s supposedly impenetrable Enigma code and end the war. He makes no friends in his inner circle all throughout his life, but not due to the fact that he doesn’t want them, he is one of those people who are of such true genius they never really learned how to be socially adept.

Turing wrestles with a multitude of impediments – shyness, homosexuality (which at the time was illegal) and the overriding pressure of heading up such a mammoth venture would be daunting for anyone trying to stay true to his heart and his extraordinary skill along the way. Not only was Turing unconventional, but his methods were as well. His deterrents included Naval High “Commander Denniston” (Charles Dance) who tries to shut him down more than once, and in the beginning, most of his team, the somewhat caddish “Hugh Alexander”(Matthew Goode), Keira Knightley as “Joan Clarke”, who becomes Turing’s main confidant and for a moment in time, his fiance, the spy amongst them, “John Cairncross” (Allen Leech) and “Peter Hilton” (Matthew Beard) who’s heartbreaking moment occurs when he realizes even though they have broken the code, they most likely can’t save his brother serving on a naval ship due to the nature of the beast that is war and the secret games that must still be played to ensure the safety of millions rather than just one. Mark Strong comes in as MI6 specialist “Stewart Menzies” another small but brilliant turn here as he is probably the only one that has Turing’s back during all this..well him and the man who lives at 10 Downing Street at the time, Winston Churchill that is. 😀 I would also be remiss in not mentioning Rory Kinnear as “Nock” the police detective who is really at the root of Turings out-ing so to speak as he, along with “Sergeant Staehl” (Tom Goodman-Hill) & “Supt. Smith” (Steven Waddington) are the ‘bobbies’ who dig into Turings past after a reported robbery at his home. Even though once Nock interrogates Turing and finds out his whole story, he is reluctant to move forward, the damage has already been done.

The story behind this film is just as harrowing as the one being solved. Here is a man who should have been touted as a worldwide hero in history books everywhere, who’s face should probably be on some type of pound currency, yet we’ve never heard of him as he was persecuted by his own nation for being homosexual and made to either undergo chemical castration or serve 2 years in prison because of this fact. Think of all the people in the city you live in ~ as it might not have existed if not for Alan Turing. Here is a man who saved 14 MILLION lives, yet killed himself due to the fact he was shunned by his own country instead of celebrated just because of who he was sexually. And yes, he was the inventor of what was for years referred to as the ‘Turing Machine’ yes ladies and gentlemen..what we now call ‘computers’. Finally in 2013 this was changed by Queen Elizabeth and rightfully so because it’s the true shame of a nation to deny this man his rightful place in it.

This film is a tour de force for me, not only because of it’s place in history, but because of the man himself. I believe this powerful film will stay with me for some time to come and I can only hope it does the same for anyone who sees it. It even more elevated by strong performances across the board of not only Cumberbatch, who is definitely in the performance of his career so far, but his strong supporting cast as even Knightly, who usually dismal performances can break up the direction of a film, carries on well. Come Oscar time I’m betting on the fact we will see some nominations here of not only film, but performances as well.

Grade: A

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Being a fan of Jon Stewart it maybe shouldn’t come as a surprise that his first foray into film is politically based. After all, he became famous for his comedic Daily Show diatribes against the US political system, corrupt world leaders and human rights atrocities. However, in his new film, Stewart uses the starting point of journalist Maziar Bahari’s (Gael Garcia Bernal) 118 day imprisonment for being a supposed spy in Iran, to craft a film condemning of any leadership that values not only political and religious hyperbole, but focuses mainly on the ignorance of its own people. Though Rosewater is inspirational, has it’s heart in the right place and is outright funny at times, something I didn’t expect, though again, considering the writer/director, I probably should have, it is missing the oompha that could make it a really good political film rather than just an average one as it’s not a very moving or probably understandable film to those who don’t really follow politics.

The film begins 11 days before Maziar’s imprisonment, as the Iranian-Canadian “NewsWeek” reporter travels to Iran to report on the historic 2009 presidential election. When arriving at the airport, Bahari meets “Davood” (Dimitri Leonidas), a taxi driver who helps him get access to parts of Tehran where the different political factions reside. They interview a young supporter “Alireza” (Amir El-Masry) for Ahmadinejad (president at the time) who furiously denies that Western media’s reports of possible vote rigging in the upcoming election are true. Then Davood brings Bahari to see another side, a group of young Mousavi supporters. These “dissenters” have formed their own system of education known as “Dish University,” a set of illegally obtained satellite dishes streaming in news from around the globe. As we follow along to the election sites I can only tell you this…after seeing our own elections the other day, we should be ashamed we don’t take this privilege for what it’s worth as you can see what it’s like when they actually do..though that would be the only thing I could see they have one upped us on as we know from history, the elections themselves don’t go well and demonstrations in the street ensue with not only many deaths, but arrests as well.

The heart of this true story is what happens when Maziar is arrested and imprisoned for being a ‘Western spy’. He is put in the prison’s solitary confinement and interrogation rooms, subjected arbitrarily to absurd lines of questions, harsh beatings and other methods of torture by the prisons main information extractor “Rosewater” (Kim Bodnia). While Maziar’s attitude shifts between amused, confused, hopeless, hopeful, and even suicidal, he is visited by the spirits of his long dead father “Baba Akbar” (Haluk Bilginer) who was imprisoned during previous regimes, and his sister “Maryam” (Golshifteh Farahani) again, also imprisoned for a long spell, whom he has long conversations with over what to do. In the end, he gives a forced confession though it ends up not being satisfactory, it did bring him to the attention of the world. Along with everything his very pregnant, British wife, “Paola” (Claire Foy) does on her behalf, and his mother “Moloojoon” (Shohreh Aghdashloo) vigilance, the next thing we see is Hillary Clinton speaking about him on worldwide TV condemning his imprisonment, demanding his release and them bowing down to the pressure of the situation to do so.

Performance wise, this movie really doesn’t do anything in a standout way, which let’s face it, it could have. As a Gael fan, I questioned at times the choice for him in this role, but maybe that’s because I’m so used to him playing the roles he is 100% suited for. While I liked this movie, with its jarring tonal shifts, it doesn’t deliver on the tone I thought it would. I think it will go over well with a political savy Jon Stewart crowd, but not much beyond that.

(Release date: Friday, November 14th, 2014)

Grade: C-

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Peggy at the Movies

Category Archives: political

REVIEW: “THE IMITATION GAME” (2014)

Review ~ “ROSEWATER” (2014)

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