An Alan Turing biopic and wartime thriller set, incongruously, in the musty huts of Bletchley Park, The Imitation Game is a prestige Brit flick that will shortly be lighting up the BFI London Film Festival. In anticipation of its LFF opening gala date, the film has a new UK trailer out. Click below to watch it in full.
This promo omits the movie’s framing device, instead majoring on Alan Turing’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) rapport – or lack of it – with the Bletchley Park team that’s been assembled to break the Nazi Enigma code. “To pull off this genius routine,” snarks his main rival, Matthew Goode’s Hugh Alexander, “you actually have to be a genius”. The rest of that team of crossword wizzes and maths cleverclogs includes Allen Leech, Matthew Beard and Keira Knightley’s Joan Clarke.
Can they break the code before U-boats wreak havoc in the Atlantic and Hitler is sitting in the Kremlin tucking into Stalin's vodka cupboard? Morten ‘Headhunters’ Tyldum’s cerebral take on the story (from newbie screenwriter Graham Moore’s script) marries up the broader context of the war with an intimate portrayal of one of the nation's unsung heroes.
The Imitation Game makes its bow at the BFI London Film Festival on October 8, before going UK-wide on November 14.