Nuremberg review: Russell Crowe shines in courtroom epic that lacks emotional depth
“Nuremberg” is technically brilliant, demonstrating the moral importance of history, but the drama rarely goes beyond the obvious. Although Russell Crowe gives a strong performance, the film ultimately feels too safe, lacking the psychological intensity and moral sense it deserves.
In ‘Nuremberg’ (2025), director James Vanderbilt attempts to re-enact one of the most defining moments in history, the trial of the Nazi High Command after World War II. However, the approach is through a lens that is part psychological study, part courtroom drama. On paper, it’s a rich base. In execution, this is a movie that feels important, feels important, but rarely feels as urgent as it should.
Russell Crowe, almost unrecognizable as Hermann Gring, brings a scary mix of swagger and confident menace to the Nazi leader. With slicked-back hair, a heavy frame and a clipped German accent, Crowe Gring is both quirky and magnetic. He embodies the personality of a man who still believed in his delusions of grandeur long after the fall of the Third Reich. Opposite him is Rami Malek as Douglas Kelly, a US Army psychiatrist who is tasked with determining whether Gring is mentally fit to stand trial.
What begins as an evaluation becomes an uneasy dance between the questioner and the subject. Vanderbilt, who previously wrote Zodiac, brings a stately, almost Old Hollywood gravitas to “Nuremberg.” The sets are lit with post-war grandeur, featuring bombed-out ruins, dimly lit court rooms and the weight of history weighing on every frame. But for all its glitter, the film often plays it too safe. The conversations between Kelly and Gring are supposed to have moral tensions, but they rarely go beyond the obvious.
However, Crowe anchors the film. His grinning is at once terrifying and strangely pathetic. A narcissistic person is so immersed in self-confidence that he cannot see the abyss into which he has already fallen. However, Malek gets it wrong. His natural intensity works against the script’s demand for quiet, searching curiosity. As a result, their exchanges lack the psychological intensity they deserve.
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The performance of the supporting cast is better. Michael Shannon brings gravitas as prosecutor Robert Jackson, and Richard E. Grant steals the scene as the sharp-witted British lawyer who ultimately confronts Gring with the question that seals his fate. Still, the use of actual Holocaust footage within the film’s glossy framework feels disturbing.
At 148 minutes, the film moves at a deliberate pace but with little momentum. Thanks to Darius Wolski’s cinematography and Brian Tyler’s score it looks impeccable, yet remains emotionally distant. The film wants to remind us that the Nazis were not monsters but men, flawed, normal and terrifyingly human. But it never really gets under their skin.
Crowe’s impressive performance aside, ‘Nuremberg’ feels like a film made for the awards circuit rather than conscience. It’s well made, and worth watching, but when it ends, you’re left admiring the surface rather than thinking about what’s beneath.
The film will be released in India on November 7, 2025.
