The Nuremberg trials have inspired filmmakers before, from Stanley Kramer’s 1961 drama to the 2000 television miniseries with Alec Baldwin and Brian Cox. But for the latest take, “Nuremberg,” writer-director James Vanderbilt focuses on a lesser-known figure: The U.S. Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who after the war was assigned to supervise and evaluate captured Nazi leaders to ensure they were fit for trial (and also keep them alive). But his is a name that had been largely forgotten: He wasn’t even a character in the miniseries.
Kelley, portrayed in the film by Rami Malek, was an ambitious sort who saw in this assignment an opportunity to write a book (bestselling, he hoped) on his findings about the men who committed such atrocities. Over several months he conducted many hours interviews and Rorschach tests with the inmates, including fallen Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering (Russell Crowe), who proved an especially fascinating subject as the highest ranking official still living.
The film, in theaters Friday, centers on a series of conversations between Kelley and Goering, who develop something almost like a friendship — or at least a temporary understanding. It’s interesting, morally murky territory fitting of the filmmaker best known as the screenwriter of Zodiac that does gesture toward some provocative ideas — including the very concept of war tribunals overseen by the victors. But it can’t quite synthesize its classical form with the bleak, sobering truths at its core.
Crowe, who speaks both German and English in the film, is well suited to playing this charismatic, larger-than-life egoist who believes he can outwit those around him. Curious choices are made, though, about what to tell of his transgressions during the war and the angelic representation of his wife and daughter in hiding.
Goering is likely not as much of a household name as Nuremberg seems to assume, but Crowe does get to do some of his best work in years. Malek, wild-eyed as ever, portrays Kelley as an overconfident opportunist who is more than willing to cross lines to gain Goering’s trust. Are we rooting for him, though? Not exactly.
