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But a lot, of course, depends on what is to come. There are many movies that haven’t been seen by critics or voters - Gone Girl, Unbroken, and Interstellar come to mind - but those movies have already problems. Gone Girl and Interstellar are not likely to be universally appealing, crowd pleasing movies, and their directors (David Fincher and Christopher Nolan, respectively) have been consistently shunned by the Academy. Unbroken is more a feel-good movie but I fear that its extremely late release date of December will doom it like that date has doomed a lot of movies since the date change, including Zero Dark Thirty and The Wolf of Wall Street in recent years.

So, can The Imitation Game win Best Picture? It most certainly can, given the way the field is shaping up right now. But that doesn’t mean that it will win and it certainly does not mean that it should win.

Here’s why.

The Imitation Game is, in most aspects, a good movie, and in some aspects it is even a great movie. Great is, for example, Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as the troubled hero, tormented by his sexuality and a tragedy in his past, motivated by his desire for perfection but hampered by his weak interpersonal relationships, and, most likely, shadowed by the specter of some form of mild autism. Cumberbatch immerses himself in the character in ways that few actors have done this year, delivering raw emotion, truthful sentiment, and fiery passion from scene to scene. Cumberbatch has quickly risen as a bona fide star and a fantastic actor, and I expect he will get his first Best Actor nomination for this flawless performance.

Cumberbatch is supported by a talented cast that holds its own well despite being overshadowed by the lead character. Keira Knightley, in her second impressive role this year after Begin Again, plays the lone female amongst the group of cryptographers trying to crack the Enigma machine during World War II. Long gone are Keira’s pouty faces and mopey eyes. She plays a much more nuanced character - the rock that keeps Turing in place at his most desperate, and inspires him. Indeed, she plays a pivotal role in his life, and Knightley does not disappoint. Finally, Matthew Goode plays Turing’s nemesis-turned-ally, and provides an intellectual counterbalance to Turing’s genius and imperviousness.

Also strong are most technical aspects of the war. The music, by Alexander Desplat - long overdue an Oscar after receiving nominations for such films as The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and Zero Dark Thirty - is exquisite, and always strikes the right chord scene-to-scene. The film also uses stylized cinematography in the few “live” war scenes it portrays - a dark, moody and vaporous lighting that respectfully conveys the horrors and devastation of the war, and that separates the shoots from the rest of the action. The director also used an off-hue for the flashbacks of Turing’s childhood, a more pale yellow/green tone that also serves the movie well and helps the viewer along subtly.

And then, of course, we have the director himself, the acclaimed Morten Tyldum. Oh wait, no one has ever heard of him. Well, like Michel Hazanavicius (the Artist) before him, this name is bound to become a household utterance amongst Oscar watchers. He’s Norwegian, and this is only his fourth feature film. I honestly had not heard of the other three. But that probably means that he has as good a chance as any with the Academy, which has shown a penchant time and time again to reward lesser known directors over more acclaimed artists.

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