Ari S.
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For those of you expecting to see two brilliant actors reprising their iconic roles from the Tony Award winning play Frost/Nixon in a heart-pounding suspenseful film, with direction by Ron Howard that makes you feel like you are in the room with David Frost and Richard Nixon in the four-part series of interviews, all leading up to a show-stopping conclusion where Nixon admits to a grand sin -- well, mmm…. Not quite. Or at all.
Michael Sheen, who gave a pitch-perfect performance as Tony
Blair in “The Queen”, plays David Frost, a talk show host that comes up with a "wild" idea, that is, to interview Nixon, the superb Frank Langella (above), on TV just months after resigning from office. After getting a crack team of Nixon/Political aficionados together (ie. two guys and his girlfriend) to prepare for the interview, he scourges to find the money to produce the segment and a network to air it. That’s not his only troubles – he has set the last of the four interviews aside to talk with Nixon singularaly about Watergate, hoping to “give him the trial he never had”.
“Frost/Nixon” aspires to be great, a classic even, but falls very, very short. It takes an event that if frankly much less grand that what one would hope. If you ask anyone around the time of the interviews if they remember the world tuning in to see Nixon “confess” his crime, they’ll most likely tell you they have some vague recelection of reading about a blurb about it in that week’s paper. Now, set aside the fact that the event itself is not nearly the extravaganza it sets out to be, but it even fails at trying to be what its not, which maybe by far its biggest letdown.
The only bright light in the entire film is not just a small glimmer, but more like a blinding star --- Frank Langella as Richard Nixon. Langella is magnificent, just magnificent as Nixon, never going into impression-territory, nor adding any fiction to his manner. Langella will surely get an Oscar nomination (though an unlikely win) for his dead-on portrayal of not simple a former president, but as a version of his behind closed doors.
To sum it up, not a terrible movie, but I went in with absolutely no expectations and somehow I left feeling that “Frost/Nixon” didn’t meet my expectations.
Maybe I should set the bar lower next time.
Verdict: Wait till DVD.
3 comments:
I was underwhelmed by this movie in general. The dialogue was amazing. I thought that Sam Rockwell was great. Frank Langella was good, but not "Oh, that's not Richard Nixon" inhabitation.
I don't want this movie to be nominated for Best Picture.
Ron Howard is trying to win another Oscar. Sad.
Just saw this movie with a friend. We both agreed that neither Nixon or Frost were total beasts (intellectually that is) but Nixon definitely controlled the space of the interview. It was lucky for Frost that Nixon decided to fess up (props to him for that) since Frost definitely was no where close to being a great interviewer who could hold his own against Nixon. The only thing that kept me watching was the suspense of whether or not Nixon was going to confess. Other than that...nothing too special, but still interesting...i probably wouldn't see again
Nixon was a beast.
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