Movie Review

Frost/Nixon

“Frost/Nixon," based on a stage play by Peter Morgan, is more than just a movie about admission of guilt. In fact, it surprised me tremendously. Being too young to be alive during the Nixon administration or during the time when these interviews between the former president and the British talk show host took place, I can only say that it paints a slightly more human Richard Nixon than I’m used too (for my generation, the most human we’ve really come to seeing is a talking head on “Futurama," but I digress) and Ron Howard’s flick is both intense and soul-searching, a great story about two men who each struggled with their own failures and were willing to go to any lengths necessary for their own redemption. I’m not exactly sure if some of the scenes in here were fictional or if they’re based on something that did happen, but taking them at face value, some are near heart-wrenching while others convey a kind of similarity and mutual respect between these two men that just adds to their verbal punches. This really is one of the best movies of the year.

Frost (Michael Sheen) was a talk show host in the vain of a low-rent Jay Leno. He was known as a man with no political conviction, but who also understood television and its power. His shows were hits overseas but he never took in America, something the movie doesn’t really go into but that seems to be his driving force. He sees the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation as perfect interview fodder and puts together a hefty sum of money to get the rights to the sit-down. Only he’s an entertainer, a guy more in-tuned with “The BeeGees” and stupid tricks than in serious questions. So he decides to bring on two journalists, Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) and James Reston (Sam Rockwell), in order to help him. They have one condition. They want the trial Nixon never had, a full conviction for everything. So the three join forces, all with the goal of exposing a man who managed to evade exposure for so long, Richard M. Nixon (Frank Langella), in a series of sit-down interviews in 1977.

For me this year, Best Supporting Actor is to Heath Ledger as Best Actor is to Frank Langella. This is an entrancing performance that gets down deep below the soul and finds the heart of a man long labeled a monster. Anyone thinking this movie is a left-wing portrayal of a conservative villain need only watch Langella’s amazing work here. He digs here, not just mimicking the hunched over shoulders and the accent but every scene reveals more about this complex and controversial man. He shows what a controlled and strategic manipulator he was in interviews, tough to catch but easy to be thrown off-course by. He manages to get under Frost's skin, even before the interviews start, and once they do his control and finesse around the bigger issues is an amazing showing of intelligence. And in his private life, Langella captures a man who was too much of an old-fashioned prude to be charismatic but who could also be very funny and personable when the time came to it. And above all, Langella finds the sadness of a man who could never win the hearts of the people, could never rise above his own mistakes, and would always know what his legacy would be.

Nixon, a little tipsy from drinking, calls Frost in a later scene and tries to identify him. This is something I don’t even think Frost just sweeps under the rug. Both men were underdogs in their prospective careers and lives. Nixon was forced to resign but Frost was a has-been, forced to do half-assed shows in Australia and London. This is a movie about him rebuilding his life as well and all the tremendous pressure he was under both from the interview and financially trying to fund it and get distribution for, all of which were way above his head. This is an underdog story as far as he’s concerned, and in watching this movie it's easy to understand how overwhelming and gratifying it was when he finally would get his retribution punches in on Nixon. Plus Michael Sheen plays it very well. Frost is an entertainer. He doesn’t want to make waves, just good TV. It’s how the outside pressures build up on him and how he decides to react that make each additional sit-down interview between the two men so much more intense. Director Ron Howard has gone through all of the interviews and taken out the most telling bits. The only thing is you wish he could have put in more because these two actors are phenomenal and when together the movie is red hot.

Langella and Sheen make the movie but the cast is terrific across the board. Kevin Bacon stars as Jack Brennan, ex-military and now security adviser to Nixon. Bacon shows a man willing to fight and protect his friend till his last breath, and the devotion and love is affective. And Rockwell and Platt both offer impassioned and funny performances as the two all-or-nothing journalists. As I was watching the movie I wondered if Frost would have had such a hard time getting a network to run the interview today as he had in 1977? Probably not. Politics is theater and theater is entertainment and we’re probably going to see Sarah Palin again on the cover of Us Weekly or People Magazine in a couple months. Like with the eventual Barbara Walters-Rod Blagojevich interviews that should be arriving soon, politics is theater and we are the jury. As far as Nixon and Frost are concerned though, Ron Howard is a terrific judge and I can’t think of two actors who could have done a more masterful job of honing in on their character's legacies. This movie really is something to see.

Craig's Grade: A-

A	10.9%
B	41.8%
C	31.8%
D	15.3%
F	0.3%