Frost/Nixon - 4 smiles

“Frost/Nixon” is a powerful and compelling duel, a showcase for subtle yet mesmerizing dramatic performances that create suspense even though the end is never in question. Peter Morgan adapts his play into a chess match between two men with colossal egos constantly maneuvering for the upper hand. And director Ron Howard offers an excellent example of how to turn a successful Broadway play into a successful movie. Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) resigned in August 1974, two years after the Watergate break-in that doomed his presidency. For the next three years, he remained in exile in California, avoiding the media and not granting interviews until a British talk-show host, David Frost (Michael Sheen), offered him $600,000 to sit down for a series of interviews covering four subjects: domestic policy, foreign policy, ‘Nixon the man,’ and Watergate. Nixon accepted, seeing this as an opportunity to rehabilitate his reputation and believing that Frost would offer soft questions. This represented a huge gamble for Frost because not only did he not have a buyer for the interviews but also the idea of a talk-show host entering the field of serious journalism was universally dismissed. Even Frost’s allies – John Burt (Matthew McFadyen), James Reston Jr. (Sam Rockwell), and Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) were skeptical.

Both Langella and Sheen played Nixon and Frost in the Broadway play and it’s to Howard’s credit that he cast both men for the movie. Langella doesn’t impersonate Nixon; he becomes Nixon, the shrewd and manipulative statesman, the man who needs to control and wants desperately to be liked. Langella won a Tony for his performance and is also likely to win an Oscar. Sheen, brilliant as Tony Blair in “The Queen,” develops his character from a bright-eyed social butterfly to a grim-eyed interrogator, who finds his focus and the courage to ask the hard questions. “Frost/Nixon” is one of the best movies of 2008. 12/5/08