What I found instructive was how well themes and issues are mirrored at different levels and different times in the course of the story. Like: The Nazis must hide the content of their wireless transmissions. Turing must hide his sexual orientation. The team must maintain a conspiracy of lies to keep hidden the success of the Ultra project. Turing must maintain a conspiracies of lies to stay on the team, stay involved in the Ultra project. Suppressing all clues about the Ultra project leads to the death of military and civilian lives during the war. Destroying all documentation of Turing's role in the Ultra project contributes to his downfall and suicide after the war. The fatal flaw in the Enigma is indiscretion. One operator always begins his message with same 5 letters to his girlfriend operator. "Love just lost the Germans the whole bloody war." (p 83). Turing's fatal flaw is his sexual indiscretion after the war. Finally, I think this is the best movie for a general audience about the predicament of being gay in an homophobic and repressive era since "Brokeback Mountain" -- which also won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay (in 2006). As in "Brokeback Mountain", the outrageous injustice and cruelty of it all is conveyed not through didactic speeches but through the emotional experiences of the characters.

Excellent analysis, Paul, and great takeaway. Some folks talk about theme as if it's the moral of the story. "Love conquers all." "You can't judge a book by its cover." I think it's true most movies have a central theme, however like songs have multiple melodic themes, so, too, movies. You hit on several of them in your take. And yet, they all tie together. Re the script's treatment of the repressive nature of British society toward homosexuality in that era, I think you hit it on the head with your choice of words: cruel. You really FEEL that in The Imitation Game. The tragedy of Turing's life experience made all the worse by the cruelty he faced.

I'm going to put on my producer's hat for this takeaway. I find it interesting the number of period piece scripts which frequent the annual Black List the last few years like The Imitation Game and 2014's Catherine the Great. Conventional wisdom says avoid them. Too expensive. Younger audiences don't like them. International markets probably won't get them. Yet we keep seeing well-written period pieces achieving renown, getting set up, getting made, and as with The Imitation Game winning awards. I would say if you have a period piece which is unique, has a compelling hook, some lead roles which are name actor worthy, and most of all, you are passionate as hell to write it, then write it. To hell with conventional wisdom! If it's got the potential to be a great story, write it! That's one of my takeaways from The Imitation Game.

Oh. One more takeaway for me how to handle exposition. The Imitation Game has to lay a lot of pipe, particularly in the first half of the story -- Turing's early life, the historical context of WW2, the mathematical challenge entailed in deciphering Enigma. And it does so quite effectively through arguments (not lectures), flashbacks, objects and images that illustrate the dramatic point without slowing down or detouring the narrative.

Paul, I'm glad you mentioned that as it was something I had meant to bring up along the way. Exposition, especially when delivered by 'talking heads' in a room, can be deadly dull. We are given some leeway in the story's setup (Act One) as readers EXPECT to come across much of it there. And yet, whatever leeway we have has to be counterbalanced by the fact we also need in Act One to provide enough entertainment and engaging characters in a compelling circumstance in order to pull the reader into the story. So it's a tricky business. Moore does an excellent job using a variety of techniques to 'shroud' the exposition, get it across in the guise of doing something else (e.g., an argument, a revelation), convey the information or data using non-verbal means, etc. It doesn't hurt the story cross-cuts between those three timelines. That keeps things lively and provides different settings in which to impart exposition, but even that comes with peril: Not confusing the reader with all the time jumps. So again, Moore does a masterful job in handling all of it in The Imitation Game.

Re: the indiscretion, I think it's greater for Alan than just one episode. Love lost is also the hole in Alan's heart that he's trying to fill...be it with work, a machine named Christopher or a go with a guy he pays down by the pub. Nice analysis on all the levels of secrets and lies, PaulG.

Scott, you also have a Lone Survivor breakdown from me...