Review: Frost/Nixon

Frost/Nixon (2008)
starring: Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Patrick McFayden, Rebecca Hall
dir. Ron Howard


Full disclosure: I am not a big fan of the films of Ron Howard. I feel like his movies are milquetoast and even though he specializes in classical Hollywood storytelling, they still lack any real energy and come off very flat. I do think he is a genuinely good person and the fact that I don't like him as a director bothers me a little. That is the truth. End disclosure.

Frost/Nixon is a decent little movie. It is not due to anything Howard does for the film, as a matter of fact I think he's a detriment to it. The movie is basically held together by the two lead actors who give solid performances. Part of this is due to the fact they've been playing them for so long. Frank Langella as Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as David Frost orginated the roles in Peter Morgan's play of the same name and it shows. The ease in which they inhabit these characters in palpable. Langella especially as he portrays Nixon as a human bein and not the characture that we've come to recognize as Nixon. I would say it's the best portrayl of Nixon yet, But I still stand behind Philip Baker Hall's Nixon in Secret Honor (1984) as the best. I don't think it's any coincidence that both of these Nixons originated on stage.

Not having seen the play, I can't say how important the secondary roles are. In the movie they become throwaways that use good actors to little effect. Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell and Patrick McFayden are the guys who help prep Frost for the bout and there isn't much for them to do other than look disappointed or victorious as the interviews are being taped. At least they are given lines. Other than Kevin Bacon who plays Nixon's confidant, all of the actors playing Nixon's team basically sit on a couch and make a variety of facial expressions during the interviews.

A point is brought up late in the film about how television is a real game changer when it comes to seeing what someone is thinking. A brief closeup at the right time can tell you more than any well tuned speech or verbose diatribe. It would have been nice if they could have shown rather then tell this. If it's a movie about tv, then find a way to visually make these points rather than have a disembodied voice tell us. It's kind of a let down considering how much time Howard spent in television and how that knowledge could have been used to really tell us something about the power of television.

In the end it's the lead performances that make the film. I really don't even feel comfortable using the word 'film' since it is so obviously a play trying to break out of it's constraints and become something much bigger. There are reasons why some stories work better on a stage and some work better on a screen. This is a story that could have really been something on the screen, but in the end makes me wish I'd had an opportunity to see this on the stage.

6.7 out of 10