'Imitation Game' hinges on Cumberbatch's vast talent

<b>Mini-review: 'The Imitation Game'</b>

In response to a policeman's question "Can machines think like humans?," brilliant British mathematician Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) replies no, they can't.

But they can think - just differently than normal humans.

This speech becomes the heart of Morten Tyldum's wonderfully wrought, fact-based drama "The Imitation Game," for Turing is really talking about himself, the one who thinks differently as a closeted gay man during World War II.

Long after the war, Turing remains in a country that relegates women to subservient roles and legally persecutes homosexuals, even if they have saved 14 million lives by doing the impossible: cracking the unbreakable Nazi Enigma code, allowing the Allies to beat Hitler.

"Imitation Game" is partly a tragedy, partly a history lesson, but largely a dramatic plea not just to embrace those who think differently, but actually appreciate them.

As Turing, cool chameleon Cumberbatch channels some of his effete, Sherlockian problem-solving qualities into a Spockian character brilliant at logic, but socially caustic to the other smarties brought in to crack the Nazi code, one so sophisticated that it would take Britain's math experts, working 24/7, about 20 million years to decipher.

"Imitation Game" opens in the 1950s when a cop investigates a break-in at Turing's house. The cop investigates why this man's military record has been classified.

The story, impressively distilled by screenwriter Graham Moore, then flashes back to the war years when Turing joins Britain's smartest puzzle solvers - among them Matthew Goode's confident two-time chess master - under Charles Dance's no-nonsense, stiff-upper-everything MI-6 commander,

The group is joined by Keira Knightley's Joan Clarke, another genius puzzle solver whose gender disallows her to hang with the guys or receive equal credit for her work. Unable to communicate with the men, Turing befriends her and even, during a touchingly kind moment, offers to marry her.

"Imitation Game" occasionally slides into Turning's childhood, presenting the future mathematician as a nerdy adolescent (a charismatically vulnerable Alex Lawthler) struggling with his brilliant intelligence, his attraction toward a fellow student, and the bullies who ridicule and harass him.

This entire movie hinges on the talents of the irrepressible Cumberbatch (he's also returning as Smaug the dragon in the upcoming "Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies").

He doesn't disappoint, creating a character so specific and organic that we don't just accept Turing, we do appreciate him - six decades too late, perhaps.

"The Imitation Game" opens at the River East 21 and Century Centre in Chicago, plus the Evanston Century 18. Rated PG-13 for smoking and sexual references. 114 minutes. ★ ★ ★ ★