With one of the biggest casts of the year and a talented writer-director in James Vanderbilt (the screenwriter of Zodiac), the WWII drama Nuremberg seemingly had the potential to ascend above its awards bait trappings. However, despite its occasional ambitions, Vanderbilt’s film is just far too uneven to work.
What is Nuremberg about?
Nuremberg is adapted from Jack El-Hai’s book, The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, following American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley as he is assigned to prepare Nazi Hermann Göring for trial at Nuremberg. The result feels like a cross of sorts between a courtroom drama and a Mindhunter-like psychological thriller — a concept that sounds interesting on paper but…