Review: Frost/Nixon (2009)
Mark R. Leeper
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Ron Howard tells the story of how a British
comedian became the man who interviewed the resigned
President Richard Nixon to get from him admissions
that he never wanted to make in front of the country.
While the main character is Michael Sheen's David Frost,
Frank Langella is fascinating as the cold and withdrawn
Richard Nixon. Rating: low +3 (-4 to +4) or 8/10
There is an old question of which would the best swordsman in
France more fear to fight, the second best swordsman or the worst
swordsman. The answer is that he would much more fear the latter
since the worst swordsman would be unpredictable. Richard Nixon
forgot that lesson if he ever knew it. Three years after he
resigned the Presidency of the United States and was pardoned by
succeeding President Gerald Ford the CBS television network wanted
to interview him and would pay him $350,000 for the privilege. But
faltering British comedian and talk show host David Frost offered
more money for the interview permission. This offer was appealing
for Nixon. Frost was, after all, just an amiable TV personality of
apparently very ordinary intelligence well below Nixon's. Nixon's
advisors told him that while CBS would throw him hardball
questions, David Frost could throw him only "puffballs." Nixon
decided to take the more profitable offer and went with interview
by the boyish TV personality. Ron Howard's new film tells the
story of how David Frost, not even an American, arranged to do the
set of interviews. Frost and his staff hoped to make the
interviews the trial that the American public had been denied when
Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon. Nixon saw the interviews as a duel
that would be fought with the unready Frost.
The film is David Frost's story with Michael Sheen (who played Tony
Blair in THE QUEEN) playing Frost. He has our attention whenever
Frank Langella's Richard Nixon is off the screen. But when Frank
Langella is on the screen one almost forgets to notice Sheen.
Langella is hypnotic. Frost risks his entire career to arrange and
commit to the production of the interview only to find that the
major TV networks are not interested in buying the interview.
Having an affable talk show host come in and interview Nixon seemed
to negate much of the point of the enterprise. Frost's search for
sponsorship turns to the likes of Weed-Whacker and Alpo dog food.
Nobody has faith that this production will be any more than a
rehash of Nixon's already familiar arguments. And Frost himself
comes to realize that he has little new to bring to the
questioning.
FROST/NIXON is a study in contrasts between the two very different
breeds of men. Frost is an extrovert, a man with outward polish,
but even he himself cannot find a real person deep within the
glossy shell. Nixon is a dark and lonely introvert. He is a man
of great intellect, but he cannot connect with people. Even the
people who work for Nixon, Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon) and Swifty
Lazar (Toby Jones with a bizarre accent), are just the same sort of
dark, cold people. Frost is the kind of man who can pick up a
woman on an airplane and have a fling though the weeks of the
interview process. Nixon both disapproves of and envies Frost for
this ability.
One might fear that the script would not make clear how each is
playing their side of the game. The film makes very clear how
Nixon is playing with Frost and how Frost tries to catch him up.
This is a game of Cat and Mouse with the mouse knowing that his
whole career depends on him catching the cat. But the real
performance is from Langella whose facial reactions when he listens
are more riveting than the questions he is being asked.
Peter Morgan who wrote THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND and THE QUEEN
writes the screenplay based on his own produced Broadway play. For
those who fear they may not remember the important historical
details Morgan starts the film with a nice little recap of the
Watergate controversy to remind the audience and bring them up to
speed. I rate FROST/NIXON a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale or 8/10.
Film Credits: <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0870111/>
What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frostnixon/>
Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2009 Mark R. Leeper