Denial

This drama will leave you pondering the power of truth in battling what many may only want to label as evil: those who deny the Holocaust's existence. Using an understated approach, director Mick Jackson says a lot with silence and stares, confining the bluster to one source: Spall's David Irving, who's like an Internet troll come alive. In quieter movies like these, it's important to have actors who are both experienced and gifted, and Denial has them in spades.

But even though the subject matter is riveting, the movie too often feels like more of an intellectual exercise than the deeply emotional experience it had the potential to be. While it admirably takes its time to lay out the lawsuit and the events leading up to it, it's lacking in details when it comes to depicting the in-court battle itself. Some of this can be chalked up to the fact that Lipstadt never takes the stand (though somehow Weisz still manages to make her presence significant). Courtroom dramas center on confrontations between the accuser and the accused; unfortunately, we don't quite get that here. Still, Denial is worth a watch, if only to remind us that we should never forget the horrors of World War II.