Stand up and take notice, Oscar. We’ve finally found something for you to sink your golden teeth into. Rarely has two people talking to each other been this compelling. Skewering both those who consider themselves above the law and those who muddle journalistic appetites with craven fixations on personality, Frost/Nixon is a sleek, compact, imminently satisfying drama.
David Frost (Michael Sheen) is a preening English playboy, a jet-setting television personality who loves his nice clothes and fast cars, not to mention the women they attract. Addicted to being a celebrity, Frost is determined to snag a project that will place him squarely in the cross-hairs of American superstardom — an interview with disgraced President Richard M. Nixon (Frank Langella).
Frost is in no way a political animal, but he instinctively understands what makes for good television. He has no personal ideological ambitions; he cares only about what will further his career. This misplaced rationale doesn’t sit well with the team he puts together to do his research. They wonder if he can hold his own and worse, if he even cares to. Historian James Reston Jr. (Sam Rockwell) and newsman Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) “want to give Richard Nixon the trial he never had.”
For his part, Nixon, who went into retreat in the three years since he resigned the White House, surprises everyone by accepting Frost’s interview request. A payment of more than a half million dollars may have had something to do with it. More than that, however, Nixon and his cadre of yes men, led by ex-Marine Chief of Staff Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon), see the exclusive as a way to rehabilitate Nixon’s legacy. They believe the breezy showman Frost cannot possibly hold his own with the menacing, cunning and highly intelligent former commander-in-chief. The interview, slated to take place over several sessions during the summer of 1977, and last, in total, for 12 hours, is the perfect format for the president to re-ingratiate himself to the American people.
Frost is in his element when the cameras begin rolling, but is sheepish and easily flustered when face to face with the imposing Nixon who does everything he can to exacerbate his interviewer’s discomfort between sessions. He is completely unprepared for Nixon’s dominant, suffocating personality which seems to suck the light and oxygen out of the room. As both teams watch from the sidelines, jockeying for position, Nixon manhandles his inquisitor, controlling the interview in every possible way, rewriting his legacy with “self serving homilies” while Frost stammers for a word here and there.
As Frost’s dream begins crashing down around him, he realizes that if he is to salvage any part of the process on which he’s mortgaged his fortune and future, he must drastically raise the level of his game. What ensues is an electrifying battle of wits. As Frost goes after Nixon’s role in the Watergate scandal, the two men begin a treacherous waltz. Will Nixon continue to evade responsibility or will Frost confound everyone and demand an accounting from one of the most powerful men in the world?
Ron Howard is a supremely competent, but almost wholly uninspired director. The Academy Award-winning A Beautiful Mind, while perfectly good, was one of the Academy’s most glaring blunders, a film wholly without artistic longevity. Here, at last, Howard overcomes his own, pedestrian limitations, giving us what is his simplest and also most artfully directed film.
Much of the credit for Frost/Nixon’s compelling nature lies with screenwriter Peter Morgan (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland). The film is based on his long-running Broadway play and feels like a stage production in the best possible way. Yes, Frost/Nixon is a talkie, but this is one dialogue-driven film that sucks you in and won’t let go. The film is at its most powerful during its quietist moments because only then can you truly soak in what you’ve been seeing and hearing. Like Frost, the film starts off slowly before gathering steam as it moves forward. Morgan invents powerful, one-on-one, behind-the-scenes moments you wish were historically accurate but cannot possibly be true. In his hands, the pair’s interview leads with prosaic, out-gunned embarrassment, transforms into thunderous hostility reminiscent of the closing minutes of A Few Good Men, and finally comes back to earth again with something akin to the confession of a sinner to his priest.
The cast, which also includes Toby Jones, Matthew Macfadyen and Rebecca Hall, is exceptional. But it is longtime character actor Langella who stands to benefit the most from the almost certain gushing praise for this film. Langella, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon on Broadway (Michael Sheen also played his part onstage), doesn’t look like Nixon, though there are times he so inhabits the role you’ll swear you’re looking at the actual man. His portrayal is a tour-de-force. His Tony may soon get an Oscar to keep it company.
It seems fitting that Frost/Nixon comes out just a few months after Oliver Stone’s W., also a film about a deeply unpopular president. There is little doubt that, though based on actual events, the pathos of Frost/Nixon has less to do with the 36th President of the United States and more to do with the 42nd. Richard Nixon stands in as a surrogate for all those who wonder if George W. Bush will ever have an accounting.
© Copyright 2008 Brandon Fibbs. All rights reserved.
