“The Imitation Game”

Rated PG-13 for some sexual references, mature thematic material and historical smoking

Who needs a film, play, or novel depicting fictional tragedy when one has history? Dragons, aliens, or an army of evil trolls smiting puny humans is mere seltzer-in-the-face compared to what we mere mortals do to humans and especially what we perpetrate against those who do right by us.

“The Imitation Game” is about Alan Turing; the man who has been credited with pretty much inventing the modern computer and who cracked the Nazi Naval code which, according to Winston Churchill, was the greatest single contribution to victory in the Second World War. Eventually he was discarded and forgotten. And soon thereafter, he was persecuted and prosecuted simply because he was homosexual. The medical treatment mandated by his sentence (chemical castration) drove him to suicide; so much for the thanks of a grateful nation, not to mention the  Free World.

However, “The Imitation Game” does not play too heavily on this part of the story. It is about the peculiar Alan Turing; an exceedingly awkward genius barely able to cope in a world that prefers its bright elites to act according to a strict code of conventional behavior. Benedict Cumberbatch is, once again, startlingly spot-on effective in this role. He will be nominated for many “golden” awards (but may not be able to push back the juggernaut created by Eddie Redmayne in “The Theory of Everything;” because nothing beats an actor playing a man with a disease unless it is a British actor playing a man with a disease).

The atmospheric biopic is totally fascinating to view. If anything, Turing’s eccentricities are underplayed so as not to obscure the WWII thriller story in the movie. The film, of course, does not end with the surrender of the Germans; but the final years of Alan Turing seems rushed so as not to make the audience feel too guilty for the way homosexuals were treated, be they heroes or not.

“The Imitation Game” is not a spectacular film, but I recommend seeing it to put the memory Mr. Cumberbatch’s performance in your personal Turing machine — the one between your ears — and use it to compare and contrast it with Mr. Redmayne’s performance in “The Theory of Everything.”

“Big Eyes”

Rated PG-13 for thematic elements and brief strong language

“Big Eyes” is a fun film recalling one of the most interesting, albeit forgotten, art frauds in American history.  Babyboomers (and those older) may recall (hopefully with no small amount of horror) pictures made to look like original paintings of waifs with enormous eyes that were sold cheaply in department stores. The public, who bought these ersatz artworks devoid of any artistic originality, was told these paintings were created by Walter Keane (played by Christoph Waltz). That was a lie. The artist was his second wife, Margaret Keane (who makes a cameo appearance in the film — an appearance as obvious as the irises of her subjects). Mrs. Keane is played most ably by Amy Adams, however the screen is commanded by, once again, Mr. Waltz. His oily, roguish, shameless, knavish, pathetic, peccant and malevolently grinning character is both fascinating and repugnant.

“Big Eyes tells” this tale with a slight feminist slant. The film’s point of view is that Mr. Keane dominated Mrs. Keane and stole from her both fame and (we assume) fortune. She eventually leaves her husband (with her daughter from a previous marriage), finds strength by becoming a Jehovah’s Witness, and confesses the con during a radio show. The 1950s and early 1960s was a man’s world. That was about to change.

The film is based on a true story but unlike many similar “true” stories, the screenwriters did not have to create a dramatic denouement of the bad guy. The climax of the film occurs in a courthouse. In fact, this part of the story is absolutely true; screenwriters come up with this lame type stuff in their sleep, but that it really happened this way is just too delicious.

“Big Eyes” is a curiosity and intriguing but I fear DVDs of the film will probably end up in the bargain bin at Wal-Mart and will be downloaded from the likes of Netflix only when the list of must-sees runs a little low. Nevertheless, it passes the time in a pleasant way. Like the spooky but coercive Big Eyes paintings, we look and wonder why we can’t turn away.

“The Imitation Game” computes to a total of four bow ties out of five.

 “Big Eyes” earns three bow ties out of five.