1. The plot: The film follows Frost as he attempts to revive his career in America by taking on the interview of the century -- Richard Nixon, fresh off Watergate and his resignation. Frost immediately outbids the competition for the opportunity to conduct the interview, and Nixon is pleased about the money and the chance to "set the record straight" on national television. Unfortunately for Frost, his lack of fame in the States (and reputation as an entertainer rather than a serious journalist) keeps him from getting network support, so he has to secure private financing to buy the time himself, marking a huge gamble for both his pocketbook and career. Worse still, Nixon ends up being a superior opponent in the interviews, and Frost risks being humiliated and bankrupted if he can't get a breathtaking admission from the President before the sessions are over.2. The film is interspersed with interviews from the supporting characters, including Nixon's right hand man, Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon), and Frost's prep team (played by Matthew McFayden, Sam Rockwell, and Oliver Platt). The interviews, as in a documentary, serve as narration throughout the film, which is otherwise shot with realism and drama. Like last year's Charlie Wilson's War, the movie is essentially a historical reenaction with the fictionalization of behind-the-scenes conversations.
3. Though the film is derived from a play, I found the performances to be not at all overdone, as is usually the case with stagy, theatrical films. Sheen, who stole the show as Tony Blair in The Queen (and is also surprisingly fierce as the head werewolf, Lucian, in the Underworld trilogy!) turned in a quality performance, portraying Frost with playboy charisma, but also with a vulnerability and underconfidence that makes his unrealistic ambitions seem believable. The supporting cast is mostly just that -- supporting -- even the heavy handed personalities of Rockwell and Platt are muted by Howard's directing. Not an easy task.
4. But the real star is Langella, in his best performance that I can remember. He conveys the outward pomposity and inner intensity of Nixon, while creating a delicate psychological profile that evokes both disdain and sympathy. Langella's Nixon is a master manipulator (toying with Frost before interviews to psych him out), a paranoid narcissist, and a self-satsified true believer. But he is also haunted by his working class background, crippled by a preoccupation with his image (constantly referring to the sweat on his upper lip that lost him the debate with Kennedy), and maintains feeble justifications for his misdeeds with a knowing air of guilt. Langella's most effective scenes are his close ups, which were also vital in making one of the main points of the film -- that the TV close-up has an amazing power to convey meaning that delivers catharsis in a way mere words cannot.
5. Frost/Nixon is one of the best films of 2008, but in a way that I fully expected. When I walked into the theater (nay, when I first saw the trailer), I knew it was going to be a good film. I knew that Ron Howard was capable of creating captivating historical semi-fiction (see Apollo 13, Beautiful Mind), and that Sheen and Langella were very good actors. I knew that the subject matter would be interesting -- hell, Watergate was something that captivated a whole generation of activists and political thinkers (as one of Frost's team members says, the one lasting legacy of the Nixon presidency is that every scandal from that point forward appropriated the suffix "-gate")!
So, I recommend this film as a necessary education of an event that, I admit, I was not aware of. I also recommend it for Langella's performance. But I would also say, that if you saw the trailer and were not immediately interested, I don't think there is anything about the film that will draw you in any further. A-
1 comments:
Langella has certainly had a storied career - from Nixon to Skeletor. It is about time that he gets some credit.
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