‘The Imitation Game’
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Alan Turing, the founder and father of computer science, in this film about a brilliant Cambridge mathematician hired by the British military to break Nazi codes.
He was the real-life leader of misfit geniuses who helped to shorten World War II by two years, save more than 14 million lives and pave the way for modern computers. And yet he also was convicted of gross indecency, tied to his homosexuality and laws at the time in Great Britain, and met a tragic end in 1954.
With a cast that also counts Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Rory Kinnear, Charles Dance and Mark Strong and the use of some authentic Enigma machines and locations, “The Imitation Game” is a celebration of quirkiness, intelligence and (for decades) behind-the-scenes shapers of history.
“The Imitation Game,” based on the 768-page book “Alan Turing: The Enigma” by Andrew Hodges directed by Norwegian filmmaker Morten Tyldum from a screenplay by Graham Moore, has all of the ingredients you might want in a movie.
It’s steeped in history, filmed at some of the actual locations and features war heroes who toil in the intellectual trenches rather than on the front lines with rifles in their hands, a woman as smart or smarter than most men, and a complex, unsung (for many years) hero.
Rated PG-13 for some sexual references, mature thematic material, historical smoking.
Extras include a making-of featurette, deleted scenes and commentary. Also, on Blu-ray: “Q&A Highlights.”
— Post-Gazette
“Interstellar”
Christopher Nolan’s movie is both a sci-fi adventure that reaches for the stars and the story of a father’s love for his children, a planet doomed to extinction and the stealth NASA mission that might find a new home in the galaxy for the residents of Earth.
It opens some time in the future when hunger is the No. 1 problem and dust storms have wiped out the ability to grow almost all crops -— except for corn which thrives in unwelcome conditions but perhaps not for long. Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) was a pilot and engineer but now is a widowed farmer living with his father-in-law and two children, 10-year-old Murphy (Mackenzie Foy) and teenager Tom (Timothee Chalamet).
Cooper mourns a time when the world looked to the heavens with wonder. “Now we just look down and worry about our place in the dirt.” Until, that is, he stumbles upon a secret NASA outpost and the chance to travel to another galaxy and find a new potential world that can be colonized.
There is no assurance the mission, which counts Anne Hathaway as an astronaut who is also the daughter of a brilliant professor (Michael Caine), will succeed. If Cooper goes, there is no guarantee how long he will be gone, how he will age in comparison with those on Earth and if he will return.
“Interstellar,” written by brothers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan, is technically masterful and emotionally powerful, but as it nears the end of its 169 minutes, you may feel as if your brain is dodging space debris as you sort out what is happening.
Rated PG-13 for some intense perilous action and brief strong language.
Extras include “The Science of Interstellar” extended cut; featurettes on visual effects, filming the dust storm scene, designing and building the TARS and CASE characters; Hans Zimmer’s score and more.
— Post-Gazette
“Wild”
“Wild,” based on Ms. Strayed’s best-selling 2012 memoir, recounts what drove Cheryl Strayed to travel 1,100 miles from Mojave, Calif., to the Oregon-Washington border — on foot and alone.
Jean-Marc Vallee (“Dallas Buyers Club”) directs a script by Nick Hornby that tells what drove Cheryl to the wilderness and what demons or memories she needed to lay to rest.
The sudden grave illness of her 45-year-old mother (Laura Dern) sent Cheryl (Reese Witherspoon) into a toxic tailspin. The movie, like the 300-plus page book, doesn’t reveal her history in orderly fashion, and it’s all the better for it. As Cheryl hikes, she flashes back to the near and distant past, sings snippets of songs and occasionally talks to herself.
This movie belongs to Ms. Witherspoon, who is stripped of her vanity with no makeup, flashes of nudity and shocking, tawdry behavior. Cheryl is an Everywoman — a messed-up Everywoman — who takes to the trail without the sort of training and preparation most experienced outdoorsmen would consider essential.
Ms. Witherspoon didn’t direct “Wild,” but she optioned the film rights, produced the movie and gave herself the best role she’s had since June Carter Cash as she walks a mile or 1,100 in another woman’s hiking boots.
Rated R for sexual content, nudity, language and drug use.
— Post-Gazette
First Published: April 2, 2015, 4:00 a.m.
