The Turing Enigma

A thriller celebrating the work and tragic death of persecuted genius Alan Turing...

The film was shot on RED, in Manchester where Turing lived, worked and died, with modern-day sequences in black & white, and colour flashbacks to Turing in the 1950s

Turing himself was a lifelong lover of codes and treasure hunts, and during the war he actually buried his life savings at Bletchley Park in case the Germans won... only to find that after the war he couldn't crack his own coded map!

The film starts in the modern day, where a postcard from Turing turns up as part of the celebrations to mark what would have been his 100th birthday in 2012... in code it provides the key to understanding a series of strange postcards Turing actually wrote just before his death... and within them is the solution to one of the greatest unsolved maths problems.

With flashbacks to Turing the film is a pacey race to crack the code...

I had strong hopes for this, for two reasons -- I'm a big fan of the Turing story, and consume every doc and feature film about Turing I can find, and because this one had high ratings on IMDb, at about 7.6. I give it a 6. First, the low budget look that pervades throughout.. Sure, it was only about $130,000-ish to make, which requires a lot of corners to be cut. But that notwithstanding, it looked TOO cheap, resembling an edgy car commercial more than a dramatic film. The lack of almost any extra actors became glaring and and annoyingly distracting, making me think this was a post-apocalyptic movie because there were almost no other humans in it. In one scene they talk in a movie theater without anyone shushing them, and most of the rest of the acting is off-key, the emotions often unexplained. The dialogue is rambly without charm; it's not ab-libbed, it's just saggy and flaccid, and what's worse -- it's a tad mumbled and delivered overly-fast, as if it were the actors' first nervous take that the director had to keep in the final cut, again, for budget reasons. The lead actor isn't up to the task of carrying the project, and doesn't get as much help from the supporting cast as he needed.

I can't help but think the filmmakers used the very good Aronofsky film Pi (1998) as their baseline and inspiration, a BW movie about mathematics, puzzle solving and paranoia that, like this movie, even includes discussions of Plato, if I recall correctly. That's pretty much where the resemblance ends, for as many ways as Pi succeeded, this movie fell short.

Then there's the sound. At times it's a bit echoey, hollow and stark, again a reflection of the budget. The sound lacks layer and perspective, resulting in all the voice levels being about the same, regardless of which room they're coming from or how many walls separate the voice from the character's POV. The shot choices aren't bad, effectively going for a poor- man's Hitchcock thing. But then there's the EDITING, which instead of keeping me merely guessing in a good mystery kinda way, instead kept me frustrated and reaching for the mouse to turn it off. If you don't watch carefully, you'll easily get lost trying to figure out the point of the whole story.

This would be an above-average student effort, but it's not ready for primetime, and certainly not ready to be judged by primetime standards. For more reviews, check us out at Movies With Greg and Chris on FB.

I loved everything about this film. Im not into my art house films, but this indie flick was fantastic. Its shot in Manchester, I know this as i recognize landmarks and streets but its a Manchester I don't recognize... its clinical, empty... almost has a post apocalyptic feel. This adds to the feel of the film.

The acting was great too. Odd snippets of humor were a warm welcome.

I particularly loved the colour Turing scenes.... I would like to have seen more of that. I would like to have learned more about Turing and did expect that when I sat down to watch the film, but i wasn't disappointed.

Good stuff :D

What a disappointing film because did not satisfy my expectations. Albeit amateurish production, I had expected a succession of scenes that guided the audience, myself included, who may or may not be completely ignorant about mathematics with an intelligent plot involving how and why some piece of mathematics or a plausible simulacrum of mathematics is integral to the story.

The film is rather poorly executed. • The choice to film in black & white was a failure because doing so was unnecessary and did not contribute to the story or acting; a failed attempt at being artistic. What makes a film artistic is excellent execution of cinematic techniques that enhance the story-telling in that medium.

• Too may scenes, especially with solo actor when the story is not progressing. The movie will benefit from liberal, judicious editing.

• The movie was incoherent because the characters's motivation and their actions was unclear, introduced the main plot beyond halfway through the movie, the Turing flashbacks did not contribute to the story, some of the character's identity or true identity were never given or verified, and had characters with undefined roles in the story especially when lacking reason for their contribution to plot development.

• The film lacked suspension of disbelief. There were no attempts to address, to explain, or to resolve obvious problems and questions that arise and linger in the audience's mind.

• For a short movie, < 90 min., bad form introducing characters, especially recurring, that do not contribute to the plot. The movie had some such characters.

I am not going to criticize the acting. I am not a film snob and I am very forgiving when it comes to acting. Suffice I write, the acting did not take me out the movie, which is a good.

Having recently heard that the director Pete Wild was a brilliant but deranged mathematician I thought I had to check this film out! It did not disappoint! You could tell by the apocalyptic atmosphere and off the wall script that this film was being created by an unhinged genius.In years to come this will be a cult classic!