Thursday
Dec112008
Thursday, December 11, 2008 at 11:20PM Movie Review - 'Frost/Nixon'
| Frost/Nixon
Starring Frank Langella and
Michael Sheen  |
When
I was in college, I took a mass media class where we watched Citizen Kane,
All the President's Men, and Network. The point of the exercise
was that it showed that the vaunted fourth estate of government was vital and
powerful, more so in the 20th century (and now the 21st) than in the 19th.But it has another effect perhaps unintended by the shapers of our government. The more people become reliant on an electronic media for their news, the more those impressions will shape their opinions.That's where talk like "the liberal media" comes in, the belief being that the news wants you to think a certain way that will, ultimately, favor the news media outlet and its particular agenda. It's something you could accuse Fox and MSNBC of with very little research.
Frost/Nixon captures a moment in time with full knowledge of its impact. The televised interviews between talk show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon were, in essence, his trial for Watergate. Because Nixon was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford, he never stood trial for any of the alleged wrongdoing conducted in his administration as it related to the break-in at the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate hotel. And what Frost in part tried to do was put Nixon on the witness stand and interrogate him.
The impact was that Nixon was tried by a jury of millions, citizens and pundits alike who watched the interviews and finally got their pound of flesh.
Peter Morgan, the screenwriter of this film and The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, creates these powerful world leaders as complex human beings ascended to a position of authority, shaping them from their backgrounds to their pivotal moment in history and not beginning with that moment and moving forward.
For writing Nixon (Frank Langella), that means rejecting the verdict of the man's televised trial, not assuming that 35 years of history on the subject of Watergate defines the only man to ever resign the presidency, and discovering through character development not only why a man of Nixon's standing would want an audience with David Frost but why he believed in what he did as president, even including Watergate. And Morgan has to do that without demonizing the man appropriately known as Tricky Dick, which is a pretty stacked deck on the surface.
To create David Frost (Michael Sheen), Morgan had to use the same rules and show us why a man of such humble beginnings would crave the spotlight and the accoutrements that come arm-in-arm with fame. A lesser script would worry less about Frost's childhood and more about the baubles, and how different the extravagant lifestyle he lived made him so much different from Nixon.
With apologies to Apollo XIII, Frost/Nixon is Ron Howard's best film, and it's on a very short list of the best films of 2008. It crackles with excitement when two men in suits sit opposite each other and talk politics. Because this is based on a stage play, it would be easy to present Frost/Nixon in a much flatter way, with less of a director's touch. Doubt is a good adaptation with a very present theatrical structure; Frost/Nixon never feels like that way. Credit Howard for finding ways to give the film more life without stepping on the toes of Morgan's script.
Michael Sheen has ably served in two Peter Morgan films, as Tony Blair in The Queen and as David Frost, and it's a monumental shame that the other roles in these movies are so transcendent. But he never disappears in either film, and here, with Morgan drawing parallels between the telegenic Frost and the craggy, monstrous Nixon, it's absolutely vital that he, too, give a command performance, even if it's not the one people will remember.
But what a showcase this is for Frank Langella. The urge is to do an imitation of Nixon, to watch the original interviews, get the voice down pat, and look unwelcoming. Langella so far exceeds the Anthony Hopkins version of Nixon that it barely warrants discussion. He delivers a knockout blow about an hour-and-a-half in with a slow-building monologue that pops the cork off decades of Nixon's private rage. But he also makes Nixon more gregarious than you would ever imagine, and for the first time in more than 30 years - and maybe ever - you can feel sympathy for Richard Milhouse Nixon.
Langella's performance is the best of the year. I doubt he will win Best Actor, because it may not be risky or popular enough, but his name will be called at the Academy Awards. Having played this role opposite Sheen on stage, it has no doubt been a portrayal crafted over the years, but isn't that, too, the mark of a great actor? Knowing what to keep and what to throw away after saying the same lines a thousand times?
I suspect if my old mass media instructor were still teaching, Frost/Nixon would be on the syllabus. It should be required viewing, and not just in a classroom.
Reader Comments (5)
Mr. Howard continues to prove why he is one of our best working directors.
Oh, I wouldn't go that far, unless it's a pretty sizable group of directors. He has to have very specific projects. Twenty guys could've made a better or comparable Da Vinci Code.
Always fun to see a five damn dirty ape review. That's the second this year I think...
Yeah, and unless Yes Man, Marley, Spirit, or Despereaux pull the rabbit out of their hats, that's it for '08.
I remember you mentioning having already seen Benjamin Buttonm so after admitting to no more five apers, I hope this at least gets a four. I'd hate to think that something I'm anticipating that much would be a letdown.