Nuremberg Review: Russell Crowe’s Career-Defining Performance Powers a Riveting Historical Epic

Another Nuremberg movie, yes — but this one isn’t replaying the same greatest hits. It zeroes in on the first trial and the unnervingly intimate mind games between a prison psychiatrist and Hermann Goering. Given where the world’s at, it lands harder than it would have a few years ago.

What this one actually covers

Right after WWII, psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) is shipped to Germany to evaluate the captured Nazi leadership before the first Nuremberg trial. The case is led by American lawyer Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon). Most of the defendants are unapologetic, but Kelley ends up in a tense, strangely cordial push-and-pull with Hitler’s No. 2, Hermann Goering (Russell Crowe), who refuses to own up to crimes against humanity and tries to frame himself as a public servant who didn’t know the worst of it.

Why the trial mattered

It sounds wild now, but there was a real danger Goering might convince the world he was just following orders. The Allies had to prove he knew about the Final Solution, period, or he had a shot at skating past the gallows. Plenty of people on the winning side wanted to skip straight to executions, but the fear was that mass hangings would turn these men into martyrs and sow the seeds for another Reich down the line. Putting them on trial — in public — was the point.

How the film plays

James Vanderbilt’s take isn’t the flashiest thing to come out of TIFF this year, but it’s absolutely one of the most gripping. It’s more than two and a half hours and still flies. Vanderbilt keeps a clean, steady pace, and Brian Tyler’s score goes big when it needs to. You feel the stakes — not just legal, but moral and psychological — and you see how deeply this scarred everyone involved. WWII can feel like ancient history; this movie makes it feel uncomfortably present.

Performances that make it click

• Rami Malek as Douglas Kelley: He starts as a cocky clinician who thinks the whole thing might make for a great book, then finds himself outmaneuvered by a man who knows exactly how to weaponize charm, fluency, and faux reasonableness.
• Russell Crowe as Hermann Goering: One of his best turns in years. He’s funny, fluent, family-first, and ruthlessly manipulative — the guy you don’t want to admit is compelling even as he’s running circles around you.
• Michael Shannon as Robert H. Jackson: The brilliant lead prosecutor who knows he’s up against a slippery opponent and treats him as such.
• Richard E. Grant as David Maxwell Fyfe: The scene-stealing secondary counsel. Less charisma than Jackson, drinks too much, but razor sharp — maybe the exact blade needed to cut Goering down.
• Leo Woodall as the young sergeant interpreter: He’s got a very personal reason to remember exactly who these men are, and it keeps him grounded. It’s his second standout at TIFF this year after Turner.

A quick bit of context

People will inevitably compare this to the classic Judgment at Nuremberg, but they’re covering different lanes. That earlier film centered on another Nuremberg trial, focusing on the judiciary that enabled the regime’s horrors — not this first case where the top leadership had to answer for everything. Different targets, different angle.

The part that sticks with you

The cat-and-mouse between Kelley and Goering is the movie — and it’s queasy in the right way. Goering articulates his supposed ignorance a lot better than you want him to, and Kelley, who thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room, gets worked over. The film leaves a chilling coda on Kelley’s story that anyone who’s read up on this era will recognize.

Bottom line

Not a showy courtroom spectacle, but a sharp, engrossing drama that doubles as a warning flare: fanaticism doesn’t stay abstract; it ends in hate and death. This is one worth seeking out.

Nuremberg opens in theaters this Friday.