Although well-crafted and performed, The Imitation Game proves to be much to conventional a film about an unconventional, remarkable and tragic life.

While doing the press rounds to boast support for his inevitable (yet underserving) Oscar nomination for The Imitation Game, actor Benedict Cumberbatch has repeatedly and passionately spoken of the injustice befallen to the man he portrays, mathematician and World War II code-breaker Alan Turnng who after the war was convicted for being a homosexual and given the punishment of chemical castration.

Cumberbatch is absolutely right in his comments. The problem is that passion and sense of injustice is nowhere to be found in The Imitation Game, a suspenseful thriller of a film, but no way near the weighty commentary piece it should have been and claims to be.

As directed by Norwegian filmmaker Morten Tyldum and written by Graham Moore (based on the biography by Andrew Hodges), The Imitation Game takes its three act structure (set in three different time periods) and welds them in and out of one another. The runaway best of the three is the central story of how Turning broke the Enigma Machine (an encryption device the Nazi’s used to stay one step ahead during WWII) which turned the tide and help the Allies win the war.

Much like his acclaimed role in popular TV series Sherlock Holmes (from which his devoted fan-base originates), Cumberbatch plays the role of Turning as a forthright and obsessive genius whose intelligence is equalled by his insufferable personality.

Recruited by Chief of MI6 Major General Stewart Menzies (played by Mark Strong at his solid, reliable, scene stealing best) to join a group of mathematicians, linguists and assorted other smarty pants to break the Enigma code, Turning wastes no time in alienating himself from this brain trust while working on a ground-breaking machine to break the code, and keep his homosexuality a secret.

It’s all top grade espionage thriller stuff, with the race against time aspect of Allied soldiers losing their lives every day the Enigma code ticks away, upping the stakes.

Despite the familiarity to past roles (which also includes his turn as a spy hiding his homosexuality in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), Cumberbatch is rather great in the showy role of Turning (playing a cantankerous, socially awkward, gay genius ticks a lot of those Oscar boxes), as is Keira Knightley who brings charm and humour to the underwritten role as Joan Clarke, best friend and one-time fiancé to Turning.

Yet a big problem festers once The Imitation Game switches to the before and after of Turning’s codebreaking exploits, with Tyldum’s attempts to add depth to Turning’s story coming across as listless, formulaic and limiting. Flashbacks to a young Turning’s (Alex Lawther) first same-sex attraction during his boarding school years are marred by Lwther’s overwrought, sour face performance. Flash forwards to a post WWII Turning feeling the brunt of a brutish justice system just does no bear any weight, with the lack of time invested into Turning’s secret life as a gay man and too much time on Turning the hero making The Imitation Game a film of mixed priorities.

While the Oscar machine behind The Imitation Game are busy presenting it as a message film of high importance, it is in fact nothing more than a thrilling espionage thriller that could have been more, but chose not to. A fine film and history lesson for sure, but to claim anything more is, well, a deception.