Nuremberg | A historical drama lacking boldness

Several recent films devoted to the Second World War and its aftermath are characterized by a combination of heavily codified elements: hyper-polished Dantesque wide shots, dusty chiaroscuro interiors, dripping military music and endless verdigris coloring.

This is what awaits us from the first minutes of Nuremberghistorical and legal drama around the trial led by the International Military Tribunal against 22 senior leaders of the Third Reich. They were notably accused of crimes against humanity and of having turned a blind eye to the extermination of the Jews.

Without being bad, the film does not stand out for its originality. The artisans remained within the Hollywood guidelines.

The subject could have been approached from many angles. Screenwriter and director James Vanderbilt (Truth) chose to focus on the interaction between Nazi Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe), Reich Minister of Aviation, and American doctor Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), psychiatrist responsible for evaluating the mental and physical condition of the 22 accused.

Between the two men a falsely empathetic and toxic relationship develops. Their meetings constitute the strongest moments. We feel a real uneasiness to see them talking. Naive, Kelley lets himself be bamboozled by his patient. Even when he saw the scale of the genocide, he remained blinded by his desire to write a book about his experience.

“If we could psychologically define what evil is, we could ensure that such an atrocity never happens again,” he says.

Between Rami Malek and Russell Crowe, it is the work of the latter, all in halftones, which dazzles us. The elegance of his Göring character is matched only by his cunning and self-importance.

Vanderbilt, who knows a thing or two about scripts (Zodiac, White House Down) constructed his story from the work The Nazi and the Psychiatrist published in 2013 by journalist Jack El-Hai. Several segments were respected.

The rest of the story leaves few memorable memories. As it mainly features men, the director did not rack his brains too much for the female characters who remain on the periphery. The insertion of some real elements, filmed at the opening of the death camps and during the trial, is on the other hand done with restraint and intelligence.

Returning to the desire of the D^r Kelley to better define what evil is, Vanderbilt concludes his film with an allusion as visible as the nose in the middle of the face on the present. An easy tackle to guess and, in our opinion, unnecessary.

In theaters in original English version and in original version subtitled in French