Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Movie Review: Gone Girl and The Imitation Game

Gone Girl

I really didn’t have a strong interest in seeing Gone Girl but a boring Sunday got the better of me. Also I should mention that I knew the general story line and surprise’ twistWith all that said I liked the movie but I didn’t love the movie. The movie stars Ben Affleck as a husband whose wife suddenly goes missing and he is instantly looked at as a suspect for her possible murder. As events unfold you realize it is not as simple as it seems. The concept of the movie was very interesting however didn’t really feel invested in any of the characters and therefore really didn’t care what happened to them. A friend of mine described it best as two horrible people who are stuck together forever. (Spoiler alert) Even after finding out the twist that Amy Dunne is alive I still didn’t care if her husband went to jail or not. Gone Girl is entertaining but does not deserve any awards this season. On a side note: It is also another movie that is close to 3 hours long. They could’ve done some serious editing (especially in the second half) and gotten this movie under the 2 hour mark. If a movie is 3 hours my expectations are start out incredibly high. 

The Imitation Game

The previews for The Imitation Game made it look stoic and boring but good reviews persuaded me to give it a chance.  (It was also the movie my friends picked to watched)  The film tells the story of Alan Turing and Joan Clarke played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. While Turing’s name was familiar to me I didn’t know anything else about him. The movie takes place during World War 2 when he was hired by a secret British government agency as a code breaker. He later recruited Joan Clarke to help in the efforts. Going into the movie I had low expectations so I couldn’t have been more surprised at how much I liked it. Turing played an extremely important role in cracking the communication codes used by the Nazis. Historians estimate that without his work the war could have gone on for another 2 years. He is also credited as one of the fathers of computer science because his code breaking machine was an early model for the modern computer. Sadly due to his homosexuality he was arrested and put on sterilization meds which caused him to later committed suicide. The film mainly focuses on his efforts during the war however it does touch on his personal struggles. This is an important story that many of us probably didn’t know about. In fact the British government didn't unsealed and declassified this story until 2013. Definitely check out The Imitation Game. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while. Extra credit to the film makers who got it all done in under 2 hours!

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