'Nuremberg' is full of big questions — and missed opportunities
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Russell Crowe and Rami Malek face off in an historical battle of wits and Weltanschauung in James Vanderbilt's new film Nuremberg. The movie comes to cinemas to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the first international trials of the Nazis in the fall of 1945. Based on Jack El-Hai's 2013 book about the fateful encounter between the Berkeley psychiatrist Douglas Kelley and Hitler's second-in-command and the highest-ranking Nazi to be put on trial by the Allies, Hermann Goering, the story revolves around Kelley's assignment to ensure that the defendants at Nuremberg were fit to stand trial, and charts his complex personal relationship with Goering up until he takes the stand.
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Vanderbilt's film runs to just shy of two-and-a-half hours, with the trial itself appearing about halfway through. This would not be such a noteworthy observation were it not that the pacing and tone of the production were so uneven. The first half of the film feels very slow and plodding.
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