OBSERVER: Rourke’s Reviews
Nuremberg
(M). 148 minutes. Opens in cinemas December 4.
Apart from one strong performance, this latest examination of the Nuremberg trials is a major disappointment, relying too much on slick presentation and hoary cliches, turning what should be an engrossing and disturbing drama into something barely passable and totally superficial.
Based on Jack El-Hai’s non-fiction book, The Nazi And The Psychiatrist, and set at the end of WWII, Rami Malik stars as Jack Kelley, an American psychiatrist brought in by the US military to assess Nazi commanders, before they are held to account at a groundbreaking international trial in Nuremberg.
Kelley’s star patient is Hermann Goring (Russell Crowe), who seems not only comfortable in his prison surroundings, but confident that he will avoid the death penalty.
While Kelley tries to get his monster patients to confess what they have done, Supreme Court associate Robert Jackson (Michael Shannon) tries to make sure that the trial will successfully happen. Despite its lengthy running time, Nuremberg seems pretty light on detail, with screenwriter/director James Vanderbilt (whose one crowning glory is penning the exceptional 2007 thriller, Zodiac) hoping distressing documentary footage of the liberation of concentration camps will distract from the fact that he fails to challenge and unsettle his audience.
Dialogue feels heavy-handed and a little too contemporary, as Vanderbilt attempts to connect war crimes of the past with war crimes happening today around the world.
While the intent is worthwhile and relevant, the execution is clumsy. Not helping matters are a number of characters riddled with cliches. Kelley is poorly written, and as such Malik cannot do a thing with the role, delivering a substandard performance.
This also pertains to Leo Woodall as Howie, Colin Hanks as Dr Gilbert, and John Slattery as Colonel Andrus. Those on trial fare no better.
What gives Nuremberg its dramatic weight and kick is Russell Crowe, who surprises as Goring, mixing the charming and the ominous to brilliant effect.
Crowe’s work is so good that it makes the rest of the film around him all the more frustrating. Nuremberg is by no means awful, but is almost completely inconsequential, which seems amazing given the subject matter.
The more the film goes on, the more it has a Spielbergian feel; well made, moves by fast enough, but lacking genuine punch and impact.
It is a little disconcerting that the far superior film is one made 64 years ago, the outstanding Judgment At Nuremberg (1961) (*). If you haven’t seen it, please race out and do so.
RATING – **½
Dead of Winter
(M). 98 minutes. Now showing in cinemas.
Oscar winner Emma Thompson takes on an atypical role in Dead Of Winter, a compelling thriller which uses both its location and cast to terrific effect.
Thompson plays Barb, a northern Minnesota widow who is travelling to a lake to commemorate the passing of her husband (we see the two at a much younger age in flashbacks dotted throughout the film), despite it being a bitterly cold winter.
Due to the awful weather, Barb needs directions to get to the lake, and stops at a rundown house, where she encounters a bearded man who we only know as Camo Jacket (Marc Menchaca).
Blood on the snow makes Barb wary, so when Camo has gone, she investigates, and finds a kidnapped young woman, Leah (Laurel Marsden), in the basement. Determined to free Leah, Barb devises a plan, but things turn nasty with the arrival of Camo’s wife (Judy Greer), known only as Purple Lady.
Like Harry Brown (2009), starring Michael Caine, writers Dalton Leeb and Nicholas Jacobson-Larson want to keep the story as believable as possible, not trying turning an older person into a teen superhero.
Brian Kirk directs the material with a careful eye, keeping things low-key for most of its running time, which allows for effectively escalated confrontations during the finale.
Thompson is terrific, making her character quietly compelling, and anchoring the drama beautifully. Menchaca and Greer are excellent as the left-of-centre ‘villains’. Dead Of Winter has come out of nowhere (and almost feels like a remake of a Scandinavian film, which it is not), but proves to be a tense, very entertaining surprise. For those who may be wondering, it is not a remake of the 1987 film starring Mary Steenburgen.
RATING – ****
Aaron Rourke