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.
Mike Wallace would have done a poor job I think, too much of a bully.
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.
***************
Nixon was a flaming liberal who used wage and price controls,created the EPA, and about a dozen ghastly agencies. I urge you to do some research.
He was poor on 7/10 issues.
Ron Howard is certainly entitled to express his opinion. However, I can never look at him the same again and would never enjoy his movies knowing that I contributed any money towards his support of a pro-abortion candidate.
He’s pretty much negated the down-home, all American image of Opie and Richie Cunningham. Same for Andy Griffeth/Andy Taylor.
However his detractors were all liberals or out and out Communists.
Nothing much changes, does it?
I agree with much of what you said about Nixon, but when he said on tape he could get the hush money, the ball game was over. Ever how you want to sat it “They got him:” or whatever, he resigned in disgrace and that is the beginning of any Nixon legacy.
Beautiful Mind was pretty good, Cinderella Man was just average.
I have to stop getting duped into looking at this reprehensible Hollywood muck. I'm sitting here now, seething with hostility after I had promised that I would divorce myself from listening to these putrid simulacrum of humanity.
A saw the preview a week or so ago, it actually looks like a great movie.
The play was supposedly quite good, but I will walk out of a daytime matinee if Opie Cunningham decides to put the Obama agenda in there.
They’re building Nixon up to be the Prince of Darkness so they can pat themselves on the back for being so intrepid, so brave, so bold as to step into the ring with him.
He was a human being, and one they’ll never understand.
His flaws as president are flaws they won’t recognize, and his strengths likewise they can’t see and won’t. He isn’t the man they’ve made him out to be, he’s much more interesting than that. And they aren’t the valiant dragon-fighters they think they are.
You won’t be able to be honest about Nixon unless you’re willing to be similarly honest about the presidents who preceded him. And the politicians he was up against. And that they can’t do.
This might win best picture since its shaping up to be a really weak year at the movies.
I wonder if Nixon really made that “fornication” remark to Frost a second before the interview started? If so, that was brilliant.
I just watched the trailer. This movie is a leftist’s wet dream...big evil Republican being taken down by brave liberal journalists. No wonder the folks at AICN gushed over it so profusely. I bet the entire staff of the New York Times will get paid time off to go watch this.
Yes. After eight years of solid-wall-of-sound Bush-hatred you'd think people would realize by now. If you believe what they say about Nixon, you may as well believe their version of Bush, Palin, and whoever is next on the horizon.
They tried to do the same to Reagan, they were trying to impeach him as well. Came within an inch.
It isn't Nixon, Reagan, Quayle, Bush, Palin they hate, its us. But they'll be happy to take us down one at a time.
LOL
Hollywood has one really big problem right now.
Half of America has kids in the service right now. When your nephew's a marine, or your kid, or your uncle, its hard to take these girly men seriously as movie action heroes. You know what the real thing looks like.
John Dean was the "mastermind" of the break in and then the coverup. When the investigation got closer to him, he modified his stories to implicate the president.
Nixon was a good man - he wasn't perfect but he was probably the best president short of Reagan in the 20th Century. He definitely had the toughest set of circumstances to work under of any president in our recent history.
But the way things are going at the LAT when they get back to the office they're likely to find their personal possessions waiting for them in a cardboard box along with a layoff notice.
Looks like best picture will be Clint Eastwood in ‘Gran Torino’ hope he gets best actor as well.
Contrary to the distorted view we have of our history, Nixon was an exceptional president - and the Vietnam War was a good fight against a remorseless, vicious enemy.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.