The new trailer for The Imitation Game is here, and it has Oscar bait—and swooning Benedict Cumberbatch fans—all over it.
Alan Turing may have given the world the first primitive computer, but his life as a misunderstood gay man in mid-century Britain was by no means an easy one. Naturally, this means his life story is prime awards-season material, especially when paired with a cast full of all stars and a lush production teeming with historical details and the kind of heady film scoring that begs to be played beneath an acceptance speech.
Mark Strong, Keira Knightley, and that guy who plays Tywin Lannister all get great turns in the new trailer from Weinstein Films, but it’s Cumberbatch whose awkward bashfulness will prove the real box office draw. And by “box office,” we mean all the Tumblr fangirls who will inevitably turn up to see if Cumberbatch has given them a new slash fandom, and all the Reddit fanboys curious about whether this film is another kind of The Fifth Estate, his WikiLeaks biopic where he played controversial ringleader Julian Assange.
Despite early fears that the movie would gloss over Turing’s homosexuality, it seems to give a decent amount of plot time to the subject. Though the trailer itself couldn’t be more vague about the “illegal” secret Cumberbatch is keeping, the YouTube description notes that Turing was persecuted for his gay lifestyle.
Turing’s life is one of history’s great triumphs as well as one of its great tragedies. Cumberbatch, if the trailer is any indication, makes Turing’s pain and passions come to life.
Let’s just hope his performance isn’t overshadowed by the hero worship of his fans on the Internet.
Screengrab via YouTube