Frost/Nixon

Richard Nixon has long been fascinating to both historians and dramatists. His public life, from his first election campaign to the day of his resignation, has been fodder for many tomes and a few films. Now his post-presidential life has provided the material for a fine, old-fashioned drama that is one of the best films of 2008.

When I heard Ron Howard was going to direct Frost/Nixon, I was dubious. Howard is certainly no auteur, his talent seems to be mostly as a traffic cop (I'll never forget his appearance, thirty some years ago, on the Mike Douglas Show, when he was directing his first feature, Eat My Dust, and showed Mike his directing chops by using Matchbox cars to show how he choreographed a car chase. Surely Orson Welles didn't think that way). Well, Howard turned out to be a perfect choice for this material, because he stays out of the way and lets his actors tell the story.

Following his resignation, Nixon retired to California and was eager to refurbish his legacy. David Frost was a comedian and talk-show host who was dying to make a mark in American television. He hit upon the idea of doing an in-depth interview with the disgraced ex-president, and Nixon agreed to do it, as Nixon was very interested in the bottom line--to the tune of $600,000. Both sides in this interrogation then prepare for battle--Nixon to try to get back the respect of the American people, Frost to get a confession.

All of this is a lot of fun. The structure is that of a boxing film, as we follow both sides training for combat , and we see the intellectual equivalent of rope-jumping and pummeling sides of beef. Frost has his producer (Matthew Macfadyen) and two researchers, (Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell), while Nixon engaged a couple of names that may seem recognizable--Diane Sawyer and Frank Gannon (Sawyer needs no introduction, while Gannon was a producer for David Letterman in his NBC days). Nixon's primary assistant is a true-believer played by Kevin Bacon, who negotiates the terms. The Nixon team knows that the Watergate scandal will be picked over closely, and they do their best to minimize the damage.

The two lead performances are excellent. Michael Sheen is Frost, and not only does he have the voice down solid, he also captures the flashes of callowness and ego. Frost was a playboy of sorts, and we see him pick up a woman (Rebecca Hall) on an airplane. He is also insecure, putting up his own money to get the interview and then struggling to hold on as the networks and then advertisers turn him down.

As good as Sheen is, it's Frank Langella that steals this show as Nixon. He doesn't precisely imitate him, but he has the stoop and jowly mannerisms down. He also does quite a bit with his eyes, saying things with them that don't pass his lips. He has a number of great moments, including getting ambushed by Frost in the Watergate portion of the interview (you could swear that you can see beads of sweat pop up on his upper lip), and a bravura monologue when he makes a drunken, late-night call to Frost and tries to form a bond over their similar, common roots. Nixon was always bedeviled by his loss to John Kennedy, who he saw as being of a privileged class, while Nixon grew up the son of a grocer. Transcending his humble upbringing was one of the driving forces of his life.

A few things don't work. The actors occasionally speak to the camera as if this was a documentary, but it is not, and seems like a cheat to give information that should have been in the narrative (other films, like Reds, have done this, but they used the real people). Also, the interviews themselves weren't as epochal as the film would suggest, but that argument is best left for cable news shows. Taken in context, Frost/Nixon is a thrilling entertainment.