Frost/Nixon: The Film About A Play About A Television Show

Ron Howard’s film adaptation of the Peter Morgan’s stage play by the same name treads new ground in the study of one of the most complicated presidents of the twentieth century, Richard M. Nixon.  Frost/Nixon reunites Frank Langella (Nixon) and Michael Sheen (Frost) in their stage roles as they recreate the 1977 television post-presidential resignation interview between President Nixon and David Frost where Nixon admits some culpability in the Watergate scandal and other abuses of power that drove him from office.

For those, like me, who are tired of the constant characterizations of current politics to the days of Nixon, this film does not dwell on or make such comparisons.  Similarly, the film is not a retelling of the Nixon presidency, which has already been done in Oliver Stone’s Nixon and the not-so-funny comedy, Dick.  Here we are left with a look at two men who were at the end of their respective careers and who used each other to return to the limelight.

Langella’s performance alone is worth going to see this film, and while it was good to finally see Sheen act in something where he wasn’t portraying Prime Minister Tony Blair, Sheen presents Frost’s whimsy and struggle to be treated as something more than a talk show host.  The other roles are tangential to why this is a compelling story, which is the dynamic interplay between the two title characters, so to that end they are rather irrelevant even if Kevin Bacon and Oliver Platt were enjoyable as always.  As Nixon says before their final interview, only one of them will come out the victor of their confrontation, but while Frost scores the win in real life, Langella captures the humility, the shame, and the pity for Nixon as he owns up to what he did to the country and the presidency.