Happy New Year 2015 to Everyone! Movie Review of Imitation Game and Big Eyes

I like the 2nd day of the new year.  Basically because you are back to normal but you are starting with a clean slate.  The last day of the old year I spent watching two movies in order to take advantage of a complimentary pass.  Of course I waited until the last day of the expiration date to use it.  New Year's Day is exciting because you continue to visit with friends and family.  The 2nd day of the new year is back to normal.  I love it.   The whole holiday period from Halloween through New Year's Day is exhausting.  I don't know how people survive it annually.

So what are the two movies that I saw?  The Imitation Game and Big Eyes.

The Imitation Game is about how Alan Turing and a group of code breakers (math geniuses and logicians) in Bletchley Park, England broke Enigma, the Nazi code.  You would think it would be a boring movie and it is slow, no doubt about it.  If you are used to action movies and hyper-animated computer graphics, then Imitation Game will be different for you because it requires an appreciation of the cerebral magic of a genius like Alan Turing.  Not only was he responsible for breaking the Nazi code but he invented the forerunner of the modern computer.  In fact, according to the movie, he would be a founder of a new field, computer science.  The Imitation Game looks at how Turing came to be part of and eventually headed the group of code breakers during World War 2.  You are watching a lot of geeks trying to do what was impossible and you are made aware of how important their work is because each day that passes means several men have died.  Their success means that the war will be shorter and fewer people die.  Part of what was interesting in the movie to me, is the internal dynamics within the group.  Turing was a genius but impossible to work with.  The movie gives you glimpses of his upbringing that highlight his otherness and how it has affected him.  Of course the code was broken, but this brought up other difficulties.  At the end of it all, despite his success at breaking the code, there is a tragic twist to his life.  It made me tear up that such a  genius could be so heartbreakingly destroyed.  It is worth seeing.  Benedict Cumberbatch, did a great job and effectively melded the vulnerability, genius, arrogance, and awkwardness of Turing.   Turing actually looks better than Cumberbatch in real life.  Cumberbatch unfortunately has kind of a bunny face with his wide cheeks and narrow jaw and it was somewhat distracting.

Big Eyes is about the saga of the Keanes, their paintings and big time art fraud.  During the 1960s Americans became enamored of these paintings of children with big haunting eyes.  The entire world thought the works were done by Walter Keane when in fact, they were painted by his talented wife, Margaret.  I have not spoiled the movie for anyone by telling the plot.  This is a movie that is based on true events.  Nothing I have disclosed is a surprise.  What is interesting about the movie, directed by Tim Burton, is how the whole thing came to be with little effort due to the megomaniacal dreams/delusions of Walter Keane, the passivity of Margaret which is par for women in that time, and how art became a big business in the modern era.  The movie is basically Burton's social commentary on the business of art and the roles of men and women during a time of upheaval in America.  I had to feel sorry for poor Margaret who had true talent and an artist's soul who somehow ended up in a situation which brought her much monetary success but no artistic recognition and a virtual prisoner to her husband's demands.  I also wonder at Walter Keane's huge cognitive dissonance between his huge desire to be known as an artist and his inability to paint.  The whole movie ends in a big trial scene that was funny and satisfying.  Before the movie, I had never heard of the situation.  I knew how the story was going to end but it was still interesting to see how things actually were at the time.