Film Review: NUREMBERG (2025): James Vanderbilt’s Remarkably Acted WWII Drama Will Hit Audiences Hard

Nuremberg Review

Nuremberg (2025) Film Review, a movie written and directed by James Vanderbilt and starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Richard E. Grant, Colin Hanks, Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Wrenn Schmidt, Lotte Verbeek, Mark O’Brien, Andreas Pietschmann, Lydia Peckham, Steven Pacey, Carl Achleitner, Paul Antony-Barber, Wolfgang Cerny and Peter Jordan.

Filmmaker James Vanderbilt’s harrowing and powerful film, Nuremberg, focuses on a World War II psychiatrist/author named Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) and his interaction with a coward/murderer, Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe). In a remarkable scene, Douglas sizes Hermann up as nothing but a “fat” guy. Douglas could definitely say worse, but he gets his point across. Crowe and Malek’s performances in this film are the stuff intense dramas are made of, and the actors get inside their characters with amazing demonstrations of their characters’ unique traits. Nuremberg is a film that packs a major wallop and stands as one of the most effective movies of its kind.

In one scene, we witness a truck pushing dead bodies around like they’re pieces of trash. There’s an image of an emaciated person who has been tortured in the camps, and it’s hard to shake this scene from one’s memory after witnessing it. When the Nazi murderers face their fates at the picture’s conclusion, they are grouped together and scooped up in a similar fashion to the innocent victims before them, and one can’t help but think of the justice which is served as these monsters are treated in the same way they abused their innocent victims. 

As the film opens, Malek’s character is impressing a female journalist (Lydia Peckham) with a card game of memory or whatever that trick is when the person one gives a deck of cards to picks out the same card the dealer initially called out before shuffling the cards. Malek is employed to see if the monsters of the camps are sane enough to stand trial for their evil wrongdoings.

Russell Crowe hits the nail on the head in terms of the way he creates his definitive villain and develops him as a character. Perhaps, Hermann can justify his actions, but virtually nobody could ever side with his evil tendencies. The other Nazis are also shown to be degenerates and, at the end, one of them gets frightened when justice is served and faces his fate head-on while squirming. Crowe’s character is too much of a coward to face his own fate and takes matters into his own hands with results that define him as the wimp and bully that he was.

The Nuremberg trials are examined in vivid detail with great supporting characters. In particular, the court justice, Robert H. Jackson (played with precision by Michael Shannon), is expertly conveyed on-screen. Leo Woodall is especially effective as the young man, Sgt. Howie Triest, who has a secret in regard to his identity that makes the scenario the film proposes all the more harrowing for this character. John Slattery’s effectively realized Colonel Burton C. Andrus clashes with Malek’s character at a key point in the movie where the Colonel is forced to send Douglas away for a bit. Richard E. Grant portrays Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe in another strong performance within the movie.

Rami Malek is beyond strong in his acting abilities here and, in many of his scenes in this movie, Malek creates the quintessential artist on a mission to discover the truth. He suffers an unusual fate at the end because of his interactions with Hermann. Malek becomes consumed with grief and overwhelmed with sadness because of the fact that a monster like Hermann existed. Malek has some great scenes in the movie and one towards the end where he is on a radio program helps shed light on why he ended up taking his own life in events that occur off-screen and are revealed at the end of the picture.

Nuremberg is told with a great deal of urgency. Russell Crowe manages to make the audience hate his character, but at the same time, tolerate the presence of Hermann as the trials take place. It’s hard to pinpoint what makes a man a monster, but Crowe demonstrates the appropriate characteristics. This poor excuse for a man that Crowe captures so effectively is on his way out of life for what he has done in his past during the war, and Crowe delivers the best performance he’s done in at least 20 years by bringing to life the nature of pure evil. Malek and Crowe’s scenes together are like watching great acting in motion.

What Nuremberg is ultimately about is recognizing the signs of pure evil and doing something to prevent it from continuing in society today. The movie ends with a quote suggesting that to know what man is capable of from the past helps us know what could happen again in the future. That’s not the exact nature of the quote, but it’s close enough. Nuremberg recognizes human suffering at the hands of everyday monsters and its effect on the psychiatrist whose life is forever altered by what he witnesses in his examination of Hermann and the actions of him and the other Nazis. Monsters are real and live amongst us. It’s that thought that affects Douglas in such a way that there is no turning back for him. This movie hits hard and will stay with the viewer long after the end credits have finished playing.

Rating: 9/10

Leave your thoughts on this Nuremberg review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Mobile App, Google News, Apple News, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, Flipboard, Bluesky, and Threads.