Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon star in James Vanderbilt’s historical drama.
Today’s filmmakers face a major issue when dealing with the Nazi problem: how to make it palatable and/or attention-rousing for a modern audience, nearly all of whom were born many years later?
First published in 2013, Jack El-Hai’s The Nazi and Psychiatrist focused on the titular characters and served as writer/director James Vanderbilt’s inspiration for dealing with the Nazi problem. By starting the story after all that nasty stuff during World War II, and instead picking up as psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) is ordered to Nuremberg to get into the minds of accused German war criminals, most notably Hermann Goring (Russell Crowe), and keep them from committing suicide as his top priority, Nuremberg would offer a fresh perspective.
Honed by years of writing major studio productions, starting inauspiciously with Darkness Falls (2003) and Basic (2003) before garnering attention the same year with The Rundown (2003), Vanderbilt received deserved critical acclaim with David Fincher’s Zodiac (2007). Since then, he made his mark on franchise films The Amazing Spider-Man (2010), Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) and Scream (2022).
Vanderbilt made his directorial debut with the straightforward political bio-drama Truth (2015). Ten years later, his sophomore feature, Nuremberg bears the hallmarks of his career: easily identifiable heroes and villains, sharp, often witty dialogue, and an abiding desire to reach a wide audience.
It’s no sin for Nuremberg to seek a wide audience for its post-War II drama; the true story resonates today and always will. It feels like a sin, however, for the film to paint notorious Nazi war criminal Herman Goring in a sympathetic light. As the cocky psychiatrist Douglas Kelley gets to know the old, overweight, blustery Goring, he soon realizes that a book about Goring would elevate his own career, and so that becomes the focus of the film: making Douglas Kelley the hero and Herman Goring a not-so-bad guy whose biggest fault is his narcissism.
It’s unpalatable, to say the least, and in Rami Malek’s portrayal, Douglas Kelley is certainly not a hero. He weasels out the secret hiding place of Goring’s wife and young daughter and befriends them, not because he genuinely wants to know and/or understand them, but because he needs to do research for his book. Kelley tells others incessantly that Goring is a narcissist, concerned only with glorifying himself, but Kelley is the true narcissist, bleating that only he understands Goring.
In effect, the film conflates Kelley and Goring, amplifying the former and downplaying the latter. It makes for a very unpleasant film that’s a chore to watch as it steadily proceeds down its preordained path, divided halfway between the pre-trial examinations and then the trial itself, at which Kelley becomes a silent witness, squirming in his chair as the attorneys misplay their hands.
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) dominates all legal proceedings, as he should. The supporting cast is dotted with fine performances, including ineffectual translator Sergeant Howie Triest (Leo Woodall), who is along for the ride so he can deliver a twist in Act III of the movie; the constantly, justifiably infuriated Colonel Burton Andrus (John Slattery); the supercilious Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe (Richard E. Grant), the I-don’t-know-why-he’s-there Colonel John Amen (Mark O’Brien), the secondary counsel Dr. Gustave Gilbert (Colin Hanks), and U.S. journalist Elsie Douglas Douglas (Wrenn Schmidt).
Ultimately, Nuremberg (2025) the movie is a polished, handsomely-produced history lesson that made me want to read the books about the Nuremberg trials to learn what really happened.
The film opens Friday , November 9, in select area theaters, via Sony Pictures Classics. For locations and showtimes, visit the official site.
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