Nuremberg

Release date: 14 November 2025 (UK)

Director: James Vanderbilt

Producers: James Vanderbilt, Richard Saperstein, Brad Fischer

Running time: 2h 28m

Story by: Jack El-Hai

Starring: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Leo Woodall, Colin Hanks, Michael Shannon, John Slatterly

Distributed by: Sony Pictures Classics

The descriptor for this one included the phrase ‘includes images of real dead bodies’, which only adds to the fact that this might seem like a weird choice for baby cinema club. I actually really appreciate it - the fact that I had a baby doesn’t have to I can no longer cope with grown up films about proper things. (I’m dreading next week’s film, for instance, far more…)

If I have a line, it would be films focusing in intimate, personal trauma rather than great big, sweeping horrors - even those that really happened. Quite a few baby screenings are showing Die My Love this week, which I find absolutely incomprehensible as a choice (from what I can tell, it’s about post partum psychosis.) Give me a thousand Nurembergs over this. Or, as I put it to my sister on the way home, ‘it’s not like I’m anxious I might commit a Nazi war crime.’

Russell Crowe as Hermann Goering

Clearly I’m not alone, because there was a surprisingly strong turn out for the Nazi war crimes film. It’s a film that very much feels like it ought to exist already - a big star studded Hollywood blockbuster about the infamous Nuremberg trials. Not sure I would have had Russell Crowe on my bingo card as Goering, but he actually does a great job - not trying to hard to come across as evil, just a guy who did his job, who now considers his incarceration as the inconvenient outcome of being on the losing side.

I’m less convinced by Rami Malek’s psychologist Douglas Kelley, but that might partly be the fault of the script. So underwritten is his character that I was surprised to find out he’s not only a real person, but that the whole film is based on a book about his work. We learn absolutely nothing about him, other than that his job is to assess the Nuremberg defendents’ competence to be put on trial. This could have been a fascinating double hander (a sort of Good Will Hunting, but evil?), but instead Rami’s character just feels like a prop for Goering. And, kind of weirdly, for Mrs Goering, who we seem to be expected to feel sorry for…

Russell and Rami

There’s basically nothing wrong with this film - the subject matter is fascinating, the acting is good, it all looks great - but there’s nothing great about it either. How many other courtroom dramas end with a gotcha moment on the stand? How many feature triumphant lawyers meaningfully nodding their respect to each other across the room? There are so many absolutely fascinating stories surrounding Nuremberg - give me the film about Laura Knight, aged 68, going over as a court artist! Give me the film about Douglas Kelley that actually tells me anything about who Douglas Kelley is and why he’s doing this (we get a sort of half hearted indication that he wants to be a famous psychologist and write a book about it all afterwards, but it’s all a bit one dimensional). It’s all very, very safe and bland, to the point where it’s a surprise to learn any of the non Nazis are based on real people.

The Neuremberg Trial, Laura Knight, 1946.
Make this film you cowards!

Still, I’m glad it was picked for baby cinema, and I’m glad I’ve seen it. There’s something about the business of having a baby that makes me want to watch big, violent films about huge topics. I don’t think I’m alone - someone recently told me they watched Saving Private Ryan the day they got home from the hospital, and I totally get that. You’ve just been through a world shattering, quite violent event, and nothing will be the same again. Somehow, at least for me, it calls for more than a light hearted comedy.

Good things: Always a joy to catch up with Richard E Grant, who of course is perfect as a very British prosecutor.

Bad things: I don’t want to get too personal, but Rami Malek is just so weird isn’t he? I can’t even work out if this is a good performance or not, his weirdness is so distracting. I do know I know no more about his character now than I did going in.

My review: Could be better, could be worse?

Lily’s review: One tiny poo, which I like to think was a moral comment on the subject matter

Next week: Wicked: For Good. This is exactly what I’m talking about - give me a thousand Nurembergs over musical theatre. We are watching the first one in preparation…