A towering performance by Russell Crowe as the wily and charismatic Nazi Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring is the main reason to watch this solid, slightly ponderous period drama. Based on the nonfiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai, this picture loads a whole lot of postwar history on to the flimsy framework of a conflicted bond between Göring and Lt Col Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), the US army psychiatrist sent to appraise him and his fellow Nazi defendants in advance of the Nuremberg trials. Göring, we are told, is a brilliant, tricky individual, who is two steps ahead of the prosecutors at all times – and such is Crowe’s commanding authority in the role, he makes a persuasive case for his character’s strategic cunning and quick wits. Malek, meanwhile, is both outclassed by Crowe’s performance and failed by the writing: his Kelley is a thinly drawn, underpowered presence.
