Friday, March 29, 2013

Mini Review: Frost/Nixon (2008)


Directed by: Ron Howard

Frost Nixon is a historical drama from 2008, based on the 2006 play by Peter Morgan of the same name. The film is directed by Ron Howard, it stars Frank Langella and Michael Sheen.

Essentially it’s a dramatization of the story behind the Frost/Nixon interviews of 1977; which were a series of taped interviews of former United States President Richard M. Nixon conducted by British television broadcaster David Frost.  

What I love about this film is the build-up to the eventual interviews. There’s a good amount of time devoted to character development, we learn their personalities and what their intentions and expectations are in regards to the interviews.

The interviews themselves are like verbal boxing matches, particularly in the way it’s sometimes shot, I thought that was really clever.

Langella as Richard Nixon is excellent; he manages to do Nixon’s voice without getting into parody which must have been very difficult. And he plays the character quite well, giving the audience mixed emotions. I didn’t really like him yet I often felt sorry for him.

Michael Sheen as David Frost is very charming; he’s confident, very likeable and from a very different world as Nixon, which makes their more personal scenes together work so well.

The film also boasts an impressive supporting cast, including Sam Rockwell and Oliver Platt as two investigative journalists who assist Frost in preparing for the interviews; also there’s Rebecca Hall as Frost’s love interest and Kevin Bacon as Nixon’s fiercely loyal personal aid.

Frost/Nixon is a riveting and intelligent drama that’s skilfully directed, it’s easily one of Ron Howard’s strongest films. 

Here's the video version if you're too lazy to read.


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