Script of the Week: The Imitation Game by Graham Moore
Moore’s script was selected to the top of the Blacklist last year. The logline they used was the following: “The story of British WWII cryptographer Alan Turing, who cracked the German Enigma code and later poisoned himself after being criminally prosecuted for being a homosexual..” It immediately caught my attention and I have been in search of this script for the better part of a year. When I finally got my hands on it last week I delved right in and was completely delighted by it.
Moore does far more than to biographize Alan Turing. The Imitation Game reads more like an Espionage Thriller than a Bio-Pic. In this aspect the story is mediocre, trudging along from plot point to plot point and solving the central mystery of the film through sheer coincidence rather than the prowess of the main character. Where Moore succeeds, excels in fact, is in the creation of Turing himself.
The Turing we get is whip smart, socially inept, unintentionally hysterical, and a complete bastard. Turing doesn’t care what people think of him. His pursuit is solely focused on the few things that challenge him in this world. The mysteries thought impossible to solve. The enigmas. In this pursuit he is a bulldozer swinging and thrashing, destroying everything in his path including every relationship he’s had and the possibility of ever being happy.
The script follows three distinct timelines and does so effortlessly. The primary timeline is about the solving of Enigma but it is in the sub-plots that the most interesting aspects of this script reside. Moore cuts back and forth from the present where Turing is being investigated by police for being a homosexual to Turing’s childhood where he meets Christopher Morcom, his first love. These two narratives inform the solving of Enigma and fill Turing’s behavior with intelligent if not subtle subtext.
Moore creates a Turing who is concerned with understanding his own difference. We see him try to adapt and imitate. To explain it logically. Turing tries to play the game as we all do but fails miserably because of his own ego. Moore, very adeptly, never lets us forget that Turing is not a hero despite saving millions of lives. He is a tragic figure hell bent on self destruction.
Sometimes a Good Notion 