This film, while entertaining, aims mainly to be a purely twenty-first century anti-bullying parable, regardless of the historical truth about Alan Turing. While I have been more firmly opposed than most to boarding school bullying, in this case, the nobler the goal, the worse the writing. The film tries unsuccessfully to make Turing both a friendless quasi-autistic lone genius, and the head of the entire decryption project; neither point has any relation to reality, and barely cohere to each other. (I admit to some bitterness about this slur on my grand- supervisor, since it implicitly denies the existence of my graduate-school supervisor.)
The film also does disservice to Joan Clarke's genuine contributions, substituting a muddled and completely ahistorical subplot about her professional dependence on, and mathematical superiority to, Turing, while seeming more concerned with her appearance than her intellect.
The film also does disservice to Joan Clarke's genuine contributions, substituting a muddled and completely ahistorical subplot about her professional dependence on, and mathematical superiority to, Turing, while seeming more concerned with her appearance than her intellect.