The coolness of “Sherlock” shot instantly and since then Cumberbatch has gone everywhere – in the movie about the mafia “Black Mass” and the multi-year space saga “Star Trek”, and in the biopics of Julian Assange and Charles Darwin. Even without appearing in the frame, he attracts attention with his voice and animation copied from him: his dragon in “The Desolation of Smaug” was the best thing that happened to Jackson’s trilogy about the hobbit. And even in The Jungle Book, among the flower garden of the voice actors, Shere Khan walks with the gait of Cumberbatch and sings words just like him.
Whatever happens to the mainstream outputs Cumberbatch, he continues to actively play on stage – the theater works as a motor in his career and does not allow him to drown in roles of the same type. Married to a theater director and long associated with eternal texts that need fresh interpretation, Cumberbatch seems incapable of damaging his reputation, because for every role in a blockbuster there is a hero of great literature. And sometimes, and this is the best, generally the same character – the embodiment of nobility, unhurriedness, and the owner of the most cunning smile of our days.
End of the parade
BBC miniseries based on Ford Madox Ford’s big novel about the love triangle of an aristocrat, his unfaithful wife, and an admiring young suffragette. Time of action – Britain before, during, and after the First World War. She opens the eyes of the protagonist to big changes, his connections with loved ones, and the relationship between classes. Benedict Cumberbatch plays a man with a fortune and position so tightly embedded in British traditions that the fate of the country and his destiny seem inseparable to him.
His weaknesses are marriage for decency with a detached, cold, and selfish wife (Rebecca Hall’s excellent exit) and an affair with a fledgling feminist: Valentina prefers talking about political freedoms to a comfortable marriage. And although the love line is the main one in this series, Britain on the threshold of modern history is not a decoration, but a completely independent character. Parade’s End is easily compared to Downton Abbey, in how a great story of casualties, injuries, and bankruptcies invades a cloudless life with the care of the correct arrangement of dishes for guests. However, compared to a multi-figure story for several seasons, this series is much more compact and is assembled around one person and his tangible throwing.
Spy, get out
A delightful Cold War spy detective based on the play of four outstanding actors, directed by Thomas Alfredson. John Le Carré’s novel about the fate of a double agent under the scrutiny of British intelligence could easily be turned into a retro-vignette with suspense and chases. In Alfredson’s film, everything is based on pauses, restraint, good manners, political etiquette, and a leisurely pace of chess. From the reserved tunnels of MI6 to the upholstery of gloomy sofas, from tweed jackets to replicas where you can’t misfire. A dozen experienced scouts are looking for a mole, some kind of connections and trust systems have been developed over the years, which only confirms the suspicion that the traitor is too well known to everyone.
Benedict Cumberbatch does not play the main role in this film but fits perfectly into the meager old-fashioned interiors of the 70s and the collective of those whose faces do not reflect anything and whose main talent is never to get carried away. A verified, quiet, and sophisticated film for more than one evening.
12 years of slavery
The controversial film is not without merit based on the memoirs of the free African American Solomon, who became a slave for twelve years by mistake – a string of awards, the plot of a cruel nightmare, and a parade of strong acting work. One way or another, the film put an end to the conversation about slavery in the mainstream in the way that Schindler’s List did in the history of Nazism two decades earlier.
The hero of Benedict Cumberbatch, a religious planter and bastard in a beautiful suit, becomes the beginning of a bad journey of the protagonist in a world of compulsion and pain. Showing a dangerous and in every sense the penultimate person with whom you do not want to be associated with any relationship, he nevertheless is a bridge to the last person – the hero of Michael Fassbender. Hands-free impunity, a prayer book, patriarchal arrogance, and a culture of violence – Cumberbatch perfectly captures the image of a decent scoundrel who can separate a mother from her children to the sound of a violin in the ceremonial hall or solemnly read a prayer at the grave of a person who died through his fault.
Imitation game
A biopic about the phenomenal mathematician Alan Turing, with whose forces the allies unraveled the codes of the fascist coalition and won the Second World War. The leading scientist, however, was easily dealt with by charging him with sodomy. Cumberbatch is the perfect fit for Turing: flexible in body and calm in the face, this is how alone mathematician should look, focused, strong-willed and enthusiastic. Turing’s main emotional challenge is to trust his intuition and find the courage to lead people, while he is used to relying on himself. The “Imitation Game” shows the tactics of warfare through the rivalry of scientific groups: while the battle of millions of lives is on the ground and in the air, ransomware from both camps is fighting for the safety of information.
Ahead of the film’s release, the many times named “Britain’s most eligible bachelor” Cumberbatch suddenly opened up about his own homosexual experience as a teenager, causing a flurry of approval from the LGBT community. In a confidential tone, he said that in his youth he did not feel any embarrassment from relationships with guys – everything that happened seemed to him just a process of comprehending himself.
Third star
Not a very well-known, poignant British film about the journey of four friends to the conditional end of the world to a secluded coast. The main reason for the trip is the inevitable death of the pet of the company, James, who is sick with cancer and has to take medications for constant pain. A person who is on the verge of life and death constantly rejoices at trifles smiles forgivingly and is angry with friends in the hope of stirring them up to great deeds. Benedict Cumberbatch plays him.
His companions – once good friends, then rivals, now grown-up people with secrets – are trying to turn the trip into a joyful event and get closer in a way they have not been able to do for many years. However, this is hampered by innuendo, random encounters, troubles along the way, and sudden obstacles. The canvas about the fascination with each other, poisonous envy, and friendship, which is known in trouble, is a lyrical, touching, and warm film about a male community in the spirit of Cassavetes’s “Husbands”, which exists to a shameful few.
