Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Michael Sheen, Frank Langella & Sam Rockwell
A gripping drama retelling the events of, and events surrounding, the television interview between David Frost and Richard Nixon of 1977 in which Nixon finally admitted his guilt in the events surrounding the Watergate Scandal.
Based on the stage play of the same name and based on events of which the actual interview footage is readily available for viewing, you could wonder whether Frost/Nixon the film is entirely necessary. Such considerations though quickly fall aside once the film begins though. Bringing the story behind the infamous 1977 interview of, former President, Richard Nixon by David Frost to the big screen, Frost/Nixon attempts to build upon the events documented on tape by showing us how it felt for those involved in the events as they occurred. Frost/Nixon is very successful in this regard as, while also adding some soap opera elements, features some strong performances, particularly from Michael Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon whilst also filmed in a faux-documentary style that helps enhance the feeling of actually being present during the events.
In between showing us events leading up to and during the interviews, Frost/Nixon’s storyline is inter-cut with documentary style scenes featuring interviews with people involved in the events relating their accounts of what occurred and how they felt after Frost/Nixon has shown them. These interview segments, also featuring the characters still being portrayed by the actors that play them during the main scenes, are effective in adding a believability to the scenes we see in Frost/Nixon in the same way that actual news interviews occasionally feature actors to help protect the identities of the interviewees. These scenes, in addition to the actual interview scenes between Frost and Nixon (of which the original broadcasts are available to compare against those in Frost/Nixon) help in enhancing the drama of Frost/Nixon in a more efficient manner than some of the more soap opera style drama also on display. Scenes featuring Frost’s attempts to find funding for the interviews and Frost contemplating failure from his hotel room do add some additional drama, showing what Frost had at stake if the interviews were unsuccessful but nevertheless, distract somewhat from the true drama of the Frost/Nixon interviews themselves.
That Michael Sheen and Frank Langella give strong performances as David Frost and Richard Nixon helps in keeping the film gripping even when the film strays towards melodrama. Sheen effectively portrays Frost as a man who is realizing the limits of his own reputation and also realizing that Nixon is a more formidable subject than he expected, showing Frost that he’d allowed his previous successes to make him overconfident. Frank Langella’s performance as Nixon is similarly layered, avoiding the overtly villainous characterizations of previous portrayals such as Anthony Hopkins’ performance in Oliver Stone’s Nixon and instead showing Richard Nixon as a man who had so pushed to deny any wrongdoing that he had come to believe his own denials yet then had to come to terms with what he had done. Langella’s performance effectively portrays Nixon as the beaten man that had been seen on television by the end of the interviews. It is a performance that humanizes, rather than demonizes Nixon yet also manages not to exonerate the man or justify his actions.
In addition to Sheen and Langella, Frost/Nixon also benefits from a strong supporting cast with particularly strong performances from Sam Rockwell, a writer assigned to help Frost dig up details on Watergate who comes across as sympathetically idealistic, representing the people that felt most betrayed by Nixon and also a strong performance from Kevin Bacon as Nixon’s aide Jack Brennan, a Nixon supporter who wants to believe in Nixon’s innocence as much as Nixon himself. Filling out the rest of the cast are Oliver Platt, Matthew Macfadyen, Rebecca Hall and Toby Jones.
Overall, Frost/Nixon is an excellent drama. The occasional trip into the forced dramatics of soap opera style melodrama means the film lacks the punch of 2005’s Good Night & Good Luck, but still gives a generally believable and entertaining account of the events portrayed thanks to its lead performances and moments of faux-documentary scenes whilst also serving as a reminder that broadcast journalism can still be a powerful tool for truth.
Rating: 4/5
