"Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does.
A man is not finished when he's defeated.
He's finished when he quits."
-Richard M. Nixon
Frost/Nixon is not set up like a normal political film; it's actually more similar to a boxing match. The title alone sounds like a fight in which one of the contenders will have their ear bit off.
In the red corner: The former 36th President of the United States, heavyweight Richard Nixon. In the blue corner: entertainment journalist and celebrity interviewer, lightweight David Frost. There will be 12 rounds in 12 days, each consisting of two hours a piece. Nixon, you will defend your choices and fight for what you believe were the right decisions. Frost, you will attempt to get Nixon to confess, for the sake of the American people to get him to confess to crimes that the people believe Nixon needs to come clean with. When the camera starts rolling, you both touch gloves and come out swinging.
Ron Howard's adaptation of Peter Morgan's play pits these two against each other, each with their own personal agenda. For Nixon, it is to gain sympathy with the people in an attempt to live a life similar to the one he once knew as opposed to feeling exiled. For Frost, it was hundreds of thousands of dollars, a new step up in his career, and success in a land he once had it in, America. For both men, this interview and becoming favorable to Americans, is everything.
To bring the stage to the screen, Howard has brought the two actors who made these characters on the stage, Frank Langella as Nixon, and Michael Sheen as Frost. Langella is transcendent as the former president and truly encompasses the role. Sheen, once again has to hold his own against a phenomenal performance, much like he had to alongside Helen Mirren in The Queen, and once again does it. During later scenes, he does a fantastic job of trying to save face while falling apart inside and trying to keep the tears swelling up in his eyes from falling.
Each contender has his own entourage, their own group of Paulies, that help the before, after and during the bouts. While we don't see much of Nixon's, outside of the stoic and set in his beliefs, Jack Brennan, played by Kevin Bacon, and the underused Toby Jones as Swifty Laxar, we do spend plenty of time with Frosts'.
Last year was an incredible year for Sam Rockwell. David Gordon Green's understated Snow Angels and the Palahniuk adaptation Choke helped show a great diversity in Rockwell's acting. Yet his role as James Reston Jr. is much more restrained that either of those performances, but still incredible nonetheless. Oliver Platt and Matthew Macfadyen also help Frost get the information he needs to effectively defeat Nixon and add some great comedic breaks. Rebecca Hall, who was phenomenal as the confused Vicky in Woody Allen's Vicky Christina Barcelona, is completely wasted here as Caroline Cushing, playing nothing more than arm-candy for Sheen.
Writer of both the stage play and the screenplay, Peter Morgan, tries to show the audience that while on the surface Nixon and Frost are polar opposites, but similar on the inside. He also shows more going on inside each person's head, much like he did in The Queen. He also attempts to find a similarity between Nixon and Bush, and does just a good as job getting deeper into the mind of a former president, if not better, than Oliver Stone's recent W. On that note, Frost/Nixon also works as a perfect companion piece/pseudo-sequel to Stone's Nixon.
My biggest problem with this film is Ron Howard's direction. He tries to make Frost/Nixon seem almost like a documentary, right down to the talking heads. He also used the now-infamous shaky cam, which makes it look completely improvised, and tries to make it feel as such, like he was always in the right place at the right time. Stylistically, a documentary chronicling the build-up, the after effects and the actual interview might have been more interesting, but it seems like Howard isn't ready to get to far out of his comfort zone.
2008 was a great year for the stage coming to the screen. John Patrick Shanley's Doubt and playwriter Martin McDonagh's first crack at the cinema, In Bruges, set a high standard that Frost/Nixon cannot match. However, like The Queen, it does do an effective job of educating audiences with a true incident told through fictionalized accounts. This excellent retelling of an important moment in journalism and in world history has much more going on than what it seen on the surface, much like Nixon and Frost themselves.
Rating: B+
Image from Rotten Tomatoes
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