thefilmfiles

Never Underestimate a Man From Cambridge - FROST/NIXON

     The buzz was intense.  I harangued some poor PR guy at Univeral for weeks.  I finally got to see it and…and...does Michael Sheen get David Frost's oh so distinctive that I can still remember it in my head 40 years later voice, right?  Is Frank (sexiest Dracula ever) Langella a thoroughly convincing Nixon? 

     The answers to these an numerous other questions about this film are a resounding YES!  That's right Ron Howard has pulled out another Oscar nominee shoe-in, worthy of all of the many accolades being heaped upon it.  The film is an adaptation of the stage play Frost/Nixon, first produced in London and written by Peter Morgan, who also penned the screenplay.  But any transfer of a what amounts to a two character piece to screen is risky business for all sorts of reasons not the least of which is that you are asking two actors to shoulder a heavy burden.  We watch films in a way that is much different than the way in which we participate in a theatrical experience: we look to the camera create an illusion of activity and movement.  All of the concerns are more than adequately addressed so that you will never once look at your watch or think "stagey."

     The story, for those, not old enough to remember, begins some time after Nixon's resignation in the aftermath of the Watergate break-in and coverup.  It's 1977 and David Frost gets the, as he himself puts it later, insane idea that he's the one to interview Nixon.  Now Frost had been considered something of a lightweight, despite being Cambridge educated, having started out as a standup comic and known in the U.S. for his celebrity interview talk show which ran from 1969 until 1972.  Despite having two shows running at the time, one in Australia and one in London, Frost was hungry to get back to the American brand of fame, replete with his table at Sardi's in New York.  When it came to the Nixon interviews though, Frost had trouble selling the networks on his vision, so he rolled the dice and went ahead without them.

     Nixon of course was still trying to rehabilitate himself, trying to get back to his version of Sardi's, Washington, in the mix, always a problem for the retired president (see Bill Clinton) but especially difficult for the only one who had to resign from office.   At the time, he still hadn't admitted anything wrongdoing on his part and hadn't shown contrition, merely regret for being exiled to his beach front compound in California. Needless to say both men underestimated each other and the difficulties of the enterprise.

     There are several absolutely amazing things about this film the first being it's ability to create tension and visual interest in a very tight, small story.  Characters have been added and exteriors utilized such that we see Nixon at his San Clemente retreat.    Frost's globetrotting exploits are also used, he's on the Concorde, he's doing a stunt in Sydney Australia, he's going to a film premiere at the Arlight Cinerama Dome in Hollwyood.  All of this very successfully keeps our visual interest while at the same time taking absolutely nothing away from the mano a mano battle between these two during this historic series of interviews that earned the highest ever rating for a news program.

     And here is where the film really succeeds or fails: Frank Langella.  This is not to disparage or diminish the performances of any of the other actors including the excellent Michael Sheen who in spite of his lack of physical resemblance (he is a spot on Tony Blair though) channeled the voice and manner.  But it's Nixon who was and still is the object of our fascination, the inscrutable, machiavellian figure.  There are still so many proffered explanations for his bizarre combination of grandiosity and self-loathing, yet none are completely satisfying.  Thus the task for Langella, besides the obvious physical alterations, was to get inside Nixon's head and look out, putting us back in touch with he one of our strangest Presidents.  And not for one second did I doubt it I was watching Nixon. 

     There is one point where Nixon is told that Frost was once engaged to Diahnn Caroll.  "Isn't she black?", he asks.  The facial expression and "hmm" response is just a brilliant  interpretive moment, subtle and ironic (see Whoppi Goldberg).  And there are so many of these moments. Frost/Nixon took me back in time, without the romantic nostalgia so often a part of "period" films, but with a serious reminder of how a minor criminal event finally undid a briliant man who had been waiting for the other shoe to drop all his life.  But given what we've been living through for the past 8 years, his sins look minor indeed and the film is perhaps not "period" after all.

Frost/Nixon opens nationwide on December 5, 2008

Directed by Ron Howard; written by Peter Morgan based on his stage playFrost/Nixon; produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Tim Bevan, and Eric Fellner; Director of Photography Salvatore Totino; edited by Mike Hill and Dan Hanley; music by Hans Zimmer.  Released by Universal Pictures.  Running time: 122 minutes.