*UK EXCLUSIVE* FROST / NIXON
Regular readers of my stuff will know that I have something called “The 37%ers club” – a rosta of actors and actresses that I consider so insanely talented that they immediately improve any film by 37% the minute they appear in it. Within the members list I would include Oliver Platt (the head guy of the ‘club’ in my opinion), Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones and Kevin Bacon (Platt’s ‘club’ deputy). So you can see from the cast-list for Ron Howard’s Frost / Nixon that, seeing as Platt, Rockwell, Jones and Bacon head up the supporting cast, this film is 148% fantastic before anything else is taken into consideration. That’s right, every critic in the land could be completely wrong about this film and it could actually completely suck, but for me it would still be great to the level of 148% because of the presence of Platt, Rockwell, Jones and Howard.
Now, I’m a BIG fan of the original David Frost and Richard Nixon face-off from the late 70s that has rightly gone down in history as the greatest piece of television journalism. I’ve seen the play, read Peter Morgan’s script for it multiple times and consider Frost’s own write-up of the real-life events, off the back of Morgan’s hugely acclaimed play, to be one of my favourite factual books. I was well versed enough in the source material to know that some liberties (great liberties in my opinion) had been taken bringing the true life occurence to the theatre, and subsequently to the screen. But the essence of it all was still very much there – even if they had to ‘cheat’ a little to make David Frost more of a “lightweight” (he wasn’t!) to get the ‘underdog’ vibe they were going for.
Yes, the “intellectual Rocky” tag and all variations of it, that are being stuck on this film are a little, well, lazy and ‘easy’ but if that’s what it is going to take to get bums on seats for this film then I’m all for it. Howard’s even gone so far as to include a couple of ‘revising’ montages in there to keep the label almost justifiable. But Frost / Nixon is more than just an underdog movie with words used instead of [insert sport of choice here]. Much more.
Now, I admire a lot of Ron Howard’s work as a director. Cinderella Man and Ransom are fairly good little potboilers, The Missing I have yet to see but it is in my Sky+ Box waiting to be watched as I type, the least said about How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Far and Away, A Beautiful Mind and The Da Vinci Code the better, Backdraft, Parenthood, Edtv and The Paper are under-rated gems to me and Splash, Cocoon and Willow are huge heaps of fun. BUT sometimes a director only has one masterpiece in him. Sometimes he get’s that out of his system and everything else is just coasting. For me, Howard did that back in 1995 with Apollo 13 – one of the best movies of the 90s. Pretty much everything after that has shown that he spent up his real goods with that masterful piece of cinema and everything else was just going to be watchable fare, nothing more.
Yet with Frost / Nixon, a worthy brother to the same ‘factual / docudrama entertainment’ label given to Apollo 13, Howard has proven he didn’t just have one masterpiece in him after all. This is the first film of 2009 I’ve seen on the big screen and it is unarguably going to be one of the best offered to me by the end of the year. I’m almost certain of that.
In Michael Sheen and Frank Langella we’re presented with two actors who are so imbued in the roles they’re playing (as a result of following the script from stage to screen) that their performances are not only flawless, but effortless in achieving such perfection. Langella’s is, of course, the showier of the two and he works fantastically to side-step all rather trite issues relating to his lack of physical kinship to the real life Richard Nixon by quite literally becoming him regardless. Sheen is getting ignored when it comes to the mass acclaim but, for me, his is the more difficult role of the two. Langella gets to show off with bombast and emotion. Sheen doesn’t have that to play with necessarily, and he’s playing Frost back in a time when the real-life TV presenter had a lot of unlikeable qualities about him (arrogance, egotism, promiscuity, selfishness) but he absolutely nails not just the role itself, but our desire to support him.
Thanks to Sheen and Langella, this is a masterpiece. So how the hell do you describe it then, when you layer on top of their performances a confident, skilled style of direction from Howard and a script by the original playwright, Peter Morgan, that pumps the play up for the big screen without betraying the play itself or the original events? What word can describe it when you take all of that and put some of the best ensemble support work on top of it too?
When you strip away the rather lean build-up, and the intervening scenes to the film’s main body, what you are left with is a movie that is essentially a conversation between two men about a subject many will not find interesting – politics – so is it not an amazing achievement then, that the final result is one of the most fascinating, exhilerating, well-made and exceptionally well-performed movies I’m likely to see this year?
I was lucky enough to watch a live-satellite-link-up after the film with Peter Morgan and Michael Sheen taking part in a Q+A with 36 live audiences around the UK. Unfortunately, not only was I in one of only 6 cinemas that weren’t “hooked up” for anything other than “observation” but I was also sat behind two of the most inconsiderate pricks possible who decided that because the feed’s picture was out of sync by a second or so with the sound, that they’d just take calls on their phone and fuck around with each other’s coats instead.
I would LOVE to talk to you about the information Morgan and Sheen shared regarding the making of Frost / Nixon and how they achieved such a masterful, sublime end result – but by the time cinema staff decided to act regarding this pair of morons, the Q+A was all but over and most of the information was lost to my ear.
6 Responses to “*UK EXCLUSIVE* FROST / NIXON”
Langella is SOOOOOO good in this. The final scene with him and Sheen is just…oh my GAWD, I felt so sad for the man when I’ve been taught by history classes to despise him. That is the true genius of the performance. He completely sidesteps all of the public vile spewed at Nixon, especially here in the States, and makes you sympathize with him. The bit where he pets the weiner dog…just look at how defeated and frail he looks. By the end of the film, I just wanted to give him a hug
This piece is headlined UK Exclusive but you’re using the US poster.
Other than that, I think most of your comments are valid
I am really looking forward to this film for many reasons but had not heard that Toby Stephens had a part in it. That would be fabulous if true since he is such an underused talent.
Just checked online and am sad to say it is Toby JONES rather than Toby Stephens that has a part in this film.
6point7? The UK EXCLUSIVE tag is based off of advanced screenings where the review will be going ahead of MOST mainstream press.
Just because I’m in the UK I don’t go with the necessary UK poster or whatever. I go with whatever art work I particularly like.
Mainly because, truthfully speaking, I find a lot of the UK designs for movie posters to be utter shit photoshopped nonsense of the highest order.
The UK poster for FROST / NIXON is “okay” – it could’ve been worse, admittedly BUT I prefer the one atop this refer!
georgiafromgeorgia? My apologies – I wrote at speed on this one. You are in fact correct and I’ve ammended the review accordingly. Cheers!!
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