In command: Russell Crowe as Hermann Göring in ‘Nuremberg’.
NUREMBERG **** (148 minutes) M
Cinema’s dark fascination with the Holocaust and the Nazis who engineered it gets a rather intriguing twist in the superb Nuremberg, a compelling, fact-based historical drama about the relationship between US Army psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek) and Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe), Hitler’s second-in-command.
Set in the smashed titular city after the German surrender, Kelley is tasked by the rigid commander of the Nuremberg Prison (John Slattery from Mad Men) to assess the imprisoned Nazi high command in preparation for the trial that introduced war crimes as a legal concept.
Of particular interest to ambitious chief prosecutor Robert H. Jackson (Michael Shannon) is the ego-driven, self-righteous Göring and his role in the mass murder of millions.
Undercutting all expectations that Göring is a monster, Kelley instead encounters a thoughtful, intelligent man with humour, a loving family and a commitment to the longevity of the Fatherland.
As for the atrocities perpetrated in the camps, he mounts the defense that it was all the doing of others. He believed they were work camps for Russian prisoners. It’s difficult to swallow, yet Kelley finds his impartiality and professional obligations giving way to the possibility that he is starting to like the guy.
Make no mistake: in adapting Jack El Hai’s 2013 book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist writer/director James Vanderbilt has fashioned a big, old-school studio drama designed for mass consumption, acquitting his duties to pacing, strong dialogue, regular emotional peaks and maintaining several parallel story threads admirably.
Yet he does not shirk his storytelling responsibilities; Kelley’s moral conflict drives much of the film and there is no Hollywoodized softening of the horrors of the Holocaust. One courtroom sequence features footage of what the Allied troops found when they liberated the camps. The shock of these images remain undiminished. Sensitive filmgoers need be cautioned.
Crowe deserves all the kudos he’s been receiving for his bravura performance and Oscar should be sending him some love soon. That said, Michael Shannon is excellent in a subdued turn while veteran Richard E Grant earns special mention for the clout he brings to a relatively small role.
As good as Nuremberg is, respectful salutes are due to the high-grade dramatisations of the trials that have come before, most notably the 2000 mini-series Nuremberg with Alec Baldwin opposite the brilliant Brian Cox as Göring and, of course, the 1961 Stanley Kramer classic Judgment at Nuremberg, a film that holds up some 65 years later.
ETERNITY *** (112 minutes) M
Offering a refreshing and funny fantasy twist on the ever-reliable romantic comedy form, Eternity lands as one of the surprising delights of the year.
The playful premise posits an afterlife where people can choose a specific paradise to spend forever in, with a sprawling market where thousands of booths present pitches and brochures to a cosmically and comically wide assortment of places.
Into this realm lands Larry (Miles Teller) who, as an elderly man, was killed by a pretzel that went down the wrong way. Like most of the dead, he has automatically transformed into a younger version of himself.)
Rather than move on Larry decides to wait for his beloved, cancer-stricken wife Joan to pass on, only when she arrives as her younger self (Elizabeth Olsen) she discovers her handsome first husband Luke (Callum Turner), who was killed in the Korean war, has been waiting 67 years for her.
The jaunt is very ably directed by David Freyne, who keeps the tone jovial and breezy before heading into a well-considered final stretch that faces issues dealing with romantic loyalty and loss. The three leads are nimbly supported by two “afterlife coordinators” (Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early) whose constant sniping suggests hidden desires.
All up, a very good rendering of a lovely idea.
TWIGGY *** (93 minutes) M
This loving, slickly produced bio-doc celebrates the iconic British supermodel who went from working-class schoolgirl to cultural phenomenon at a flashpoint in the mid-1960s who emerged in the 1960s and inadvertently took the worlds of modelling and high fashion by storm.
Crammed with reels of archival footage and interviews with most of the main players in her dizzying career – including Joanna Lumley, David Bowie, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Powell – Twiggy (born Lesley Hornby) fronts the camera energetically, still a tad mystified at the blessed run she’s had, the only major stain being her marriage to an alcoholic actor.
It’s a wondrous serving of nostalgia, the highlight of which is her interview with a young, over-confident Woody Allen. His attempt to trip her up with questions designed to show what an airhead she is backfires spectacularly, proving early on that she wasn’t just a pretty face.
JUJUTSU KAISEN: EXECUTION **1/2 (88 minutes) MA
Another week, another incomprehensible, ultra-violent fantasy anime extravaganza that will bewilder normals but please the audience these strange films service.
With a typically frenetic cutting style, a non-linear structure, bizarre cutaways and super-fast streams of exposition that, at one point, hit parody levels, the story is kind of set in a post-apocalyptic city where concepts like cursed energy are bandied about as people and critters slash into each other.
As indecipherable as your humble reviewer found this animated scribble, in fairness it need be said that the fanboys and fangirls at the preview screening on Wednesday night had a great time, reacting to key plot points with laughs and gasps.
Can’t wait for the next one.