A couple hours plus of "Smell the glove you eveeeel Republicans? I'll pass...
Posted on 11/19/2008 4:17:41 PM PST by lewisglad
Frost/Nixon screams For Your Consideration. Directed by Ron Howard and starring Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, and sprinkled with just the sorts of actors who elevate the Oscar buzz factor like Toby Jones and Sam Rockwell, this thing is gonna get talked about over and over again. But the kicker is that this is the real deal. Easily Howard’s best film of the last decade (and arguably his best ever), this film is everything Howard does well brought together into one scintillating barn burner of a drama. The movie is simply incredible. Absolutely incredible.
And to be honest, it’s hard to believe they pulled it off. Not for lack of talent, but the content. This is the story about an interview, pure and simple. There are no backroom sessions screwing people over. There’s no physical danger as an embittered ex-president sicks CIA agents on the interview team. No romantic tension tearing at the characters. It is a battle of wills between one of the most intimidating and cunning Presidents in modern history and a television personality woefully out of his depth. And it is not the stuff of fiction – but historical fact.
What makes it work is that Howard sets this up and delivers it like you would a boxing match. He spends the movie building up this plucky team of investigators who are getting the shot of a lifetime – a bout with the champ. A man no one has been able to defeat in the verbal arena. David Frost was not the man set up to take him down. It was supposed to be Mike Wallace – exactly the type of contender you would put in the ring with a man like Nixon. Instead, with some financial maneuvering and an overconfident opponent looking for an easy win, this interviewer scored a chance at history. And history is what he got. The resulting tale is positively riveting from beginning to end, and watching the verbal sparring between the showy Frost and the stonewalling Nixon is as jarring, tense and thrilling as any boxing match.
This is the Cinderella Man of political biopics. Only it’s better than Cinderella Man.
Everyone in this movie is at the top of their game, from veteran character actors Oliver Platt and the always frenetic Sam Rockwell as Frost’s research team - to the other side, where Toby Jones continues his climb as the go to character actor of the year, giving a great performance as Nixon’s sleazy entertainment agent ‘Swifty’ Lazar. Also in Nixon’s corner is Kevin Bacon, giving a wonderfully moving portrayal of one of the last of the Nixon loyalists, Jack Brennan. But the real story is Langella as Nixon, which truly is, without hyperbole, the single greatest performance of his career. Langella has never been given a role with this much depth, power and range before, and he meets it on all fronts with the tenacity of a man possessed. He is simply astonishing, and it is completely incomparable to his previous work. Michael Sheen, who plays Frost, also gives a powerful performance. But there is this moment in the film when Nixon says to Frost “the thing about being in the limelight is that it only shines on one person,” and I couldn’t help but think about how true that was, even at that very moment. Sheen is acting his butt off, taking a character that amounts to little more than a professional smile and a hairdo and confers upon him a level of depth that makes you really feel for this guy who has bitten off more than he can chew. But as good as he is, every time Langella is onscreen, you can’t take your eyes off of him.
Based upon the play of the same name, these two actors no doubt honed their chemistry performing it together on stage and every bit of that shows here. But this film never feels like a play. Quite the contrary, Howard manages to pace this in a way that keeps it thrilling, exciting and makes you feel more like you are watching a spirited sporting event rather than an interview. Never dull for a moment and positively gripping the whole way through, this movie is going to get itself a lot of Oscar buzz and earns every bit of it.
If ever there was a year for Langella, this is it. Now that Warner Brothers has chosen to pursue best supporting actor for Heath Ledger, the Best Actor category is wide open and Langella has just moved to the position of frontrunner. Handily one of the best films of the year, this NEEDS to be on your must see list. Check this out the very first chance you get.
Frank Langella (another child of Bayonne, NJ, along with Sandra Dee, Ed McMahon, and Barney Frank) has long been one of my favorite actors. I will forgive him for sleeping with Whoopi Goldberg.
I was really impressed with the script by Peter Morgan. Good to see they apparently got the movie right. Langella’s one of the great underrated actors of the past few decades.
I still remember watching the original interview. It was all of that.
Yeah, you should definitely forgive him. He’s suffered enough!
Sounds like Langella has an Oscar to add to the trophy case.
Ditto, that. I don’t see him in a lot of movies but he’s always great!
Langella is a talented guy but Opie is a bald O-Bot slime.
A couple hours plus of "Smell the glove you eveeeel Republicans? I'll pass...
if he can call Obama a great man without even knowing who he is how can he direct a movie about a late president?
The question is, how much of Opie Cunningham’s direction will bleed into the script.
Nope, won't even watch it.
I am pulling the plug on tv. I will cut back Hollywood to nothing as well. They lied, distorted, covered up for O and stole the election. They are just like USSR propaganda. Little Opie and Andy can burn in hell. Morons that they are.
A couple of laughs from Dom Deluise. Other than that a dumb movie.
I haven't personally seen much of an acting range from Langella.
I quit watching years ago (not sure how many, but the last -I think- of the Star Trek series was still on) out of disinterest and sheer boredom. I do not miss it.
What's the difference between one patsy and another?
I lived through that era and I only too well remember the mess that Nixon inherited from LBJ and Kennedy: a major war halfway around the world, a full-up multi-billion dollar space program, a huge home-grown enemy sympathizer network which included all of the media, the 1973 Arab-Iraeli War, the Arab Oil Embargo, massive inflation, and much more.
Out of all that, he stood by our allies, met with our enemies and started the downward turn of Communism.
I saw the David Frost interview and I didn't see arrogance at all; I saw a man who deeply loved and appreciated the presidency and this was his first time to speak publicly about what happened.
The same bozos that are in control of our politics now and who are controlling the media are the ones that "got" Nixon. He was an outstanding president and we will probably have to wait for decades before someone really gets the truth out on that period of our history.
Ron Howard should be ashamed - but the Academy will support him anytime they see something against Nixon (or the "witch hunt")
“Dopey Opie”
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