Nuremberg (2025) [Movie Review] — A Haunted Courtroom Drama That Speaks to Our Moment

James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg is a polished, thought-provoking historical psychological drama that invites viewers to weigh past horrors alongside present anxieties. Anchored by commanding turns from Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon, the film dramatizes the legal and moral collisions at the Allied trials while interrogating how charisma, bureaucracy, and conscience shape the verdicts we hand history.

Story & Structure

A courtroom epic told through a personal and often unnerving lens

Adapted in part from Jack El-Hai’s nonfiction, the screenplay follows the Nuremberg proceedings while centering on the fraught relationship between Hermann Göring (Crowe) and American psychiatrist Jack Kelley (Malek). Parallel to this is Supreme Court associate justice Robert H. Jackson’s (Shannon) crusade to frame the trials as legal precedent rather than revenge. The film favors character-focused scenes over a strict procedural account: much of its momentum comes from private interviews, philosophical sparring, and the slow unraveling of motives. That intimate approach makes the historical material feel immediate, even when the narrative occasionally sacrifices breadth for depth.

Performances

Star power and subtlety lift the moral dilemmas off the page

Russell Crowe is magnetic as Göring — suave, corpulent, and eerily jocular — turning charm and menace into indistinguishable instruments. Rami Malek gives perhaps his finest screen work in years as Kelley: he conveys curiosity, hubris, and the unease of a man seduced by access to evil. Michael Shannon’s Jackson is the film’s moral ballast, portrayed with incisive earnestness; Shannon makes Jackson’s conviction and frustrations palpably human. The supporting cast (including Colin Hanks and Leo Woodall in smaller but effective parts) rounds out a courtroom world that feels both bureaucratic and terribly consequential.

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Direction & Writing

A writer-director who balances legal exposition with psychological intrigue

Vanderbilt—writing with El-Hai—brings a screenwriter’s clarity to complex legal concepts, but he also leans into the film’s psychological core. The dialogue smartly interweaves legal theory, ethical paradox, and dark humor, allowing characters to reveal their contradictions. At times, the film’s ambition slightly outstrips its runtime: certain historical figures and wider geopolitical contexts receive sketchy treatment, and the trial’s theatrical climax feels abbreviated after the painstaking setup. Still, the movie’s central moral conversations—about responsibility, complicity, and the uses of psychiatry—remain compelling throughout.

Tone, Cinematography & Sound

A restrained, atmospheric design that complements moral inquiry

The visual and sonic design is deliberate and spare, favoring close observation over spectacle. Period detail is exact without being ostentatious; courtroom scenes pulse with contained tension rather than melodrama. Vanderbilt uses moments of irony and offbeat levity to prevent the film from becoming didactic, a choice that helps viewers engage with painful material without numbness. The soundscape and score underscore the film’s unease, particularly during one-on-one encounters where flattery and confession slide into manipulation.

Themes & Relevance

A historical drama that doubles as a meditation on accountability and propaganda

“Nuremberg” is less a history lesson than a meditation on how societies name and punish evil. Its exploration of confidentiality, the ethics of psychiatric evaluation, and the seductive power of eloquence feels uncomfortably contemporary—especially in an era of state overreach and contested narratives. The movie resists easy moralism, instead showing how institutions, individuals, and political expediency tangle to produce outcomes both necessary and imperfect.

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Verdict — Rating: 7.5/10

An intelligent, occasionally uneven film that rewards close watching

Nuremberg is an earnest, well-acted drama that asks big questions without offering pat answers. While its scope sometimes narrows inconveniently and the trial itself feels rushed after a dense buildup, the performances (Crowe’s commanding villainy, Malek’s layered curiosity, Shannon’s principled force) and the film’s ethical probing make it a rewarding watch. Vanderbilt’s film doesn’t settle debates so much as sharpen them—an achievement for cinema that seeks to illuminate history and the shadows it casts on today.