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In 2001, the movie, "Enigma" was released. It was directed by Michael Apted, and was adapted from the novel by Robert Harris. As both a book and a movie, "Enigma" was pretty good and told the fictional story of the breaking of the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park during WW2. The "hero", Tom Jericho, was an Alan Turing-like math genius who both saved the world and won the girl. Unfortunately, the movie had a weak ending and turned Tom Jericho from a neurotic-math genius into some kind of war hero of the physical kind. I've always liked the movie, knowing it wasn't great, but the makers at least gave it a "go". It had great music and the production details were spot-on. (I also like the actor Jeremy Northam, who plays a sleazy government agent.) Now, almost 15 years later, we get a movie, "The Imitation Game", with a bit more of the real story. It is based on the book, published in the 1990's, "Alan Turning" by British mathematician, Andrew Hodges. (I also read and reviewed the book.) The "hero" this time is the real Alan Turing and he is depicted in "The Imitation Game" as a nerdy Cambridge math genius who is brought in to Bletchley to break the code. But Alan Turing, in addition to being a math genius, is also gay. No getting both the code AND the lady in this movie. At the time, being a homosexual was a crime in the UK. I saw the movie this afternoon, on its first day of release, in a theater in "fly-over" country. Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles all opened the film a few weeks ago but we out in the boonies had to wait til today. The movie was well worth the wait. I had wondered how the director and the authors of the screen play were going to handle Turing's homosexuality. Well, it was handled brilliantly. The film, which is only about two hours long, captured both Turing's times and life in an understated manner. The movie opens with his post-war investigation and arrest and goes back and forth to his work in WW2 and his pre-war youth in a British boarding school, where he is treated cruelly by other students. His only friend - and defender - was a boy named Christopher, who died at a young age. Alan names his code-breaking machine "Christopher" in his friend's honor. The movie ends, as does Alan Turing's life, with his suicide after being forced to take hormonal treatment to be rid of homosexual urges. But most of the movie is devoted to Alan Turing and his fellow code breakers at Bletchely. The movie recounts how important breaking the Enigma code was and how difficult it was to do. The machine that Alan Turing developed was the forerunner of the computer I'm using to write this review. Benedict Cumberbatch - is there a movie he HASN'T been in lately - as Alan Turing is brilliant. Kiera Knightly as Joan Clarke, a fellow-code breaker, is also good. (In both real life and the movie, the two were engaged to be married but the engagement was broken.) The supporting cast also does their acting duties and the production values are excellent...HOWEVER... Rob Slaven, writing an excellent 4 star review of the movie on this site, raises some interesting points of movies getting historical facts correct vs the "movie truth". He refers to a Slate Magazine examination of the movie which points out the differences between the movie version and real events. This is a problem with watching an "historical movie". What's true and what's "fudged" or made more "filmable"? I'll add: as film goers what should we take with literary license? Some of the characters in "The Imitation Game" were seen through the lens of "literary license". Relationships between characters were not always as they were depicted on screen. So, I'm left in a quandary, as both a movie goer and a reviewer. I really enjoyed "The Imitation Game". Should the film have been labeled, "Based on history" as some films are? And would I have been happier watching a documentary about the life of Alan Turing, where all the facts presented must be correct? I simply don't know. But I sure did enjoy this movie.