Frost/Nixon: A Dynamite Match-up

I think there’s a general perception about movies like Frost/Nixon, that, like medicine, they’re good for you…but don’t go down easily. That perception is misguided in this case, because Ron Howard—working from the literate but never stuffy screenplay by Peter Morgan, who adapted his play—has crafted a jolting thriller, where in place of bullet hits and explosions are words and glances. Frost/Nixon moves with a propulsive force and a commanding energy. It’s less a history lesson than it is a stirring account of a real-life David versus Goliath saga, an epic battle between a seasoned master manipulator and a young underdog in way over his head. And the fact that it’s based on true events doesn’t hurt.

For anyone a little fuzzy on the details, Nixon left office in 1974 and remained absolutely silent about Watergate for three years. Enter David Frost, a charming British talk show host and, according to his producer John Birt, “performer.” Frost finishes filming an episode of his show Frost Across Australia just in time to see Nixon leaving the White House. Immediately he inquires about the worldwide viewing figures for the event, knowing that landing an interview with Nixon is his ticket to a higher level of success and maybe even journalistic respectability.

His producer is doubtful he can get Nixon, but Frost takes the bold move of offering $500,000 for the interview—while U.S. mainstay CBS is only dangling $350,000. This is certainly of interest to Swifty Lazar (played to slimy perfection by Toby Jones)—the legendary agent and deal broker—who was selling Nixon’s memoirs. Lazar manages to talk Frost up to $600,000, and Nixon agrees to the interview. It appears to be a win-win for the Nixon camp. They know it’s unlikely that Frost will actually be able to raise all that money, so they can laugh all the way to the bank with the $200,000 deposit he gives them. And even if he does raise the funds, Frost is a lightweight who can easily be controlled and bested in the interviews so that Nixon comes out on top.

Against the odds, Frost manages to raise the funds all himself, by selling stock and calling in favors from wealthy friends. He’s in this thing for the full ride; it’s not just his reputation on the line but his livelihood. He tries to package the interviews as four 90-minute specials, but all of the U.S. broadcast networks turn him down. His only option is to film the interviews independently and try to personally syndicate them through various channels.

Frost hires Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) and James Reston Jr. (the always wonderful Sam Rockwell) as investigators and charges them with digging for information on Watergate and anything they can use against Nixon in the verbal bloodsport deathmatch that is to ensue. These guys are an uneasy alliance who have varying motives and approaches to their jobs. The research for the interviews and the interviews themselves—the majority of which Nixon dominates—tests their partnership, but they don’t give up.

That’s the true pleasure of the movie, watching this team of underdogs take on one of the most powerful and prepared figures in the world in a battle where second place is as good as professional death. It’s a story where the suspense comes not from anticipating the outcome but by anticipating the journey. Frank Langella as Nixon is a force of nature, and Michael Sheen as Frost matches him, adroitly displaying the character’s torment and fear as he flies by the seat of his pants, struggling to pull this thing off and not become a cautionary tale. Kevin Bacon is also typically solid as Jack Brennan, Nixon’s fiercely loyal post-presidential Chief of Staff.

Howard keeps the movie driving forward with an engrossing pace, cutting back and forth between the current action and recreated interviews of the major players talking about their experiences years later. Howard is a true actor’s director, having been an actor himself for so long, and he really allows Langella and Sheen to go toe to toe in a sparring match that doesn’t let up until the end credits. He’s aided considerably by the work done by Salvadore Totino, Howard’s Director of Photography since The Missing (2003). Totino and Howard’s camerawork appears completely unstaged, as if they were just finding it on the spot as the actors did their thing. They employ whip pans and rack focuses often, and they manipulate the depth of field in a myriad of shots to forcefully draw the viewer’s attention to certain bits and moments. It gives the film an immediacy, an urgency, that helps drive everything with tremendous momentum.

Frost/Nixon is one of the most entertaining movies I’ve seen this year. It’s not didactic or lumbering in any way, and anyone who enjoys thrillers and intense battles should go check it out.