The Film
Despite dealing with subject matter of vast American political and historical importance, Frost/Nixon is a rather small-scale film, and it’s much better for it. Rather than trying to assemble a political drama that ramped up to an ending with earth-shaking ramifications, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan, adapting his own play, have taken an approach that doesn’t overestimate the events they’re bringing to the screen.
In reality, the David Frost/Richard Nixon interviews didn’t have any sweeping, long-term effect, and Frost only elicited the slightest of confessions from the disgraced former president. But as far as theatrical drama goes, this is a story that has plenty to spare, and the extremely well-paced script and engrossing performances ensure we don’t miss any of it.
Frank Langella excels as Nixon, a role he won a Tony for and has clearly become enveloped in over the last several years. Though his physical resemblance is fleeting, there’s scarcely a moment in the film where you don’t believe he is the actual Richard Nixon. Hardly a hatchet job, there are a number of scenes where you can’t help but like the guy, even if he’s totally paranoid or despicable the very next scene.
Standing his ground alongside him in scene after scene is Michael Sheen, a far too underrated actor, who captures David Frost’s charisma and need to please battling against one another rather well.
The main event – Nixon and Frost going toe-to-toe in what Nixon refers to several times as a no-holds-barred brawl – is excellent, but the film gets credit for not simply creating a series of dull expository scenes just to prod the film along to its clear drawing point. It also helps that the cast is packed with great character actors in supporting roles – Toby Jones, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell – and a strong performance from Kevin Bacon as Nixon’s chief of staff.
The only scene that really rings false is a late-night phone call where a drunk Nixon rings Frost in his hotel room, where he emphasizes many of the themes already established in the film. It’s the biggest departure from the truth in a film that of course, has plenty of smaller inaccuracies, but its real problem is it’s just not necessary. Besides being a showcase of great acting by Langella, it just serves to explicitly reinforce the idea that the interviews were a series of duels between outsiders. A bit heavy-handed, it’s one of the film’s few obvious missteps.
Howard’s direction has never been all that impressive, but he’s got a great script this time around, making Frost/Nixon one of his best films yet.
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