FROST/NIXON (Universal, 2008) D: Ron Howard, w/ Frank Langella, Michael Sheen. Rating: NNNN DVD package: NNNN Rating: NNNN
Check out the actual Frost-Nixon interviews in the extras. The glimpses of the real Richard Nixon show how well Frank Langella nails the man without ever literally imitating him. He’s got the cunning, wariness, superficial charm and personal power down cold.
[rssbreak]
Michael Sheen, as Frost, the lightweight Brit talk show host tackling his first major piece of journalism, easily matches Langella’s power and subtlety. Acting duels don’t get better than this.
Frost figures that an interview with the ex-president will put him back on top in the American market and goes deeply into debt to mount the show. He needs Nixon to admit guilt. Nixon intends to admit nothing and play the interview for self-vindication.
You hear the phrase “boxing movie” all over the detailed extras package, and that’s how director Ron Howard handles it. He sets up Frost as contender and Nixon as champion with composition and lighting brings in the handlers, notably Kevin Bacon as Nixon’s pit bull saves the interviews for act three, and treats them as head-on battles. All this builds up more tension than you’d expect.
The rest of the cast is superb, including Rebecca Hall as Caroline Cushing, which is striking because she has nothing to do but hang out as Frost’s girlfriend and witness his private angst. The extras reveal that she was a key part of Frost’s team. Pity Howard couldn’t have shown that on screen.
EXTRAS Director commentary, making-of doc, real interview doc, Nixon library doc, deleted scenes. Widescreen. English, French, Spanish audio and subtitles.
