Cumberbatch lifted The Imitation Game but failed to score Oscar

One of the recent mysteries of the box office was the excellent performance of Academy Award best picture nominee The Imitation Game.

Benedict Cumberbatch and Charles Dance in The Imitation Game.

One of the recent mysteries of the box office was the excellent performance of Academy Award best picture nominee The Imitation Game. Actually, as the 2015 Oscar nominees make it to the digital/DVD release window, a few more mysteries remain unexplained. Such as how did the star of Mike Leigh’s Mr Turner, Timothy Spall, not earn an Oscar nomination, particularly after winning the acting prize at Cannes? Oh, it was a European film.

No matter, the Brits cleaned up elsewhere. The star of The Imitation Game, Benedict Cumberbatch, was presumed initially to be the best actor-elect until his countryman Eddie Redmayne swooped in with his more obvious performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (out in June).

Anyway, The Imitation Game and American Sniper were the biggest hits among this year’s best picture nominees. So how did The Imitation Game (M, Roadshow, 114min, $39.95) push to $18 million? I’d argue it hinges on Cumberbatch’s performance. His portrayal of Alan Turing, who led a team that cracked the Enigma code, is a very conventional movie. Norwegian director Morten Tyldum and screenwriter Graham Moore draw on the chipper heritage of old British war movies to make the film feel familiar, at least stylistically and in its rendering of wartime Britain. Turing’s life was far more complex but biopics sag when their focus isn’t specific. His homosexuality is treated as a plot point to keep it all neat in a manner that paints Turing merely as some kind of emotionless automaton racing against the clock to stymie the Germans. It’s a queer note considering the film celebrates the man’s progressiveness in his innovation.

Nevertheless, Cumberbatch does wonderful things with what he has. He elevates the film from a conventional place as a rollicking tale to something rather special. So he lost the Oscar to the guy with the affliction; his time will come.

This week

Everly (R18+)

Roadshow (92min, $29.95)

Into the Woods (PG)

Roadshow (125min, $39.95)

Mr Turner (M)

Transmission (150min, $39.99)