"Here is a movie promising the juiciest of real-life stories from history. Before the Nazi war-crime trials at Nuremberg that started in November 1945, an obscure US army psychiatrist called Dr Douglas Kelley was ordered to interview the prisoners, chief among whom was Hermann Goring. This was supposedly to establish their fitness for trial, but was really intended to gain inside information as to how they would conduct their defence."
"Russell Crowe is rather wittily cast as the portly, pompous Reichsmarschall Goring; it's the best he's been for a long time, a sly and cunning manipulator playing psychological cat-and-mouse with the Americans. But there is a deeply silly performance from Rami Malek as Kelley: an eye-rolling, enigmatic-smiling, scenery-nibbling hamfest which makes it look as if Malek is auditioning for the role of Hitler in The Producers."
"Leo Woodall plays the American army translator Howie Triest, Michael Shannon is the US chief prosecutor Robert H Jackson and Richard E Grant is British Tory MP David Maxwell-Fyfe who (for all that his postwar career as home secretary was notorious for the homophobic persecution, which helped drive Alan Turing to his grave), is actually shown to be crucial in cross-examining the Nazis."
An American army psychiatrist, Dr Douglas Kelley, is ordered to interview Nazi prisoners before the Nuremberg trials to assess fitness and gather defence intelligence. Hermann Goring is the prime interviewee and is portrayed by Russell Crowe as a portly, pompous, sly manipulator. Rami Malek plays Kelley with exaggerated mannerisms, resulting in a cartoonish, uneven performance. Leo Woodall, Michael Shannon and Richard E. Grant portray key supporting figures including the translator, chief prosecutor and cross-examiner. The film highlights psychological gamesmanship but struggles to give Kelley plausible nuance. Release dates: 6 November Australia, 7 November US, 14 November UK.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]