Everyone will tell you that the story has been "streamlined" for cinema, so I won't beat that dead horse.

The movie celebrates a story that is difficult and does an admirable job. The acting is solid and the script keeps things moving. It is effective at evoking a time that isn't that long ago but seems worlds away: technically and socially – yet still to familiar in terms of the games people play.

The movie does follow the stereotypical trope of the absent minded professor and Cumberbatch does a good job of making him prickly yet vulnerable.