Frost/Nixon (2008)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Richard Nixon	Frank Langella	½
David Frost	Michael Sheen	½
James Reston, Jr.	Sam Rockwell	½
Jack Brennan	Kevin Bacon	½
John Birt	Matthew Macfayden	½
Bob Zelnick	Oliver Platt	½
Caroline Cushing	Rebecca Hall	½

Review

This solid, comprehensive dramatization is based upon a series of interviews between the ambitious British interviewer David Frost and the former president of the United States Richard Nixon. As it was Nixon's first official interview since his resignation, it was an anticipated piece of television, and although it didn't bring an upheaval of new information to the cause, the interview did paint a picture of a remorseful and deeply complex man.

While Ron Howard's conversion of Peter Morgan's play Frost/Nixon makes for a thoroughly interesting film with some remarkable aspects, it also suffers from being a rather self-absorbed piece which seems to deem itself the conclusive source on Richard Nixon and the Watergate incident. Bear in mind that the essence of the incident had already been fully investigated, and the information concerning the level of Nixon's specific involvement was merely academic at this point. What Frost/Nixon does capture, however, largely through Frank Langella's masterful, scrutinising performance of Nixon himself, is an interesting take on some of the man's more personal and private mannerisms and characteristics - mostly comments and bits of conversation off-camera, which, subject to reliable sources, depict the complexity of the man and the situation.

In the end, Frost/Nixon feels like a film overstating its own significance - at least historically. The film actually works best as a document of the mechanisms of media and journalism, presenting a detailed account of the entire process of conceiving, setting up and carrying out a large-scale interview. Director Howard is at his best when paralleling the interview situation as a boxing fight, with two men with a lot to gain or lose (seemingly) jabbing away at each other. As such, Frost/Nixon is as a stylish and highly interesting tug of war between two highly capable duellists.