Oscar Review: Frost/Nixon

In part 2 of my Oscar Review, I will be reviewing Frost/Nixon. As I said, I'm doing them in order of what I thought the best movies in this category were, so this would place 4th out of 5.


Frost/Nixon
The Players: Directed by Ron Howard, Starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell and Kevin Bacon.
Also Nominated For: Best Director (Howard), Best Actor (Langella), Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay.
Plot: In the aftermath of Watergate, British TV personality David Frost has a series of very revealing interviews with disgraced President Richard Nixon.

The Review: Frost/Nixon is one of those movies that would be nothing without it's actors. Langella takes his Nixon portrayal from the stage to the screen and doesn't miss a beat. The vastly underrated Michael Sheen and Sam Rockwell also give great performances. There is no doubt that this is a great movie, perhaps worthy of it's Best Picture nomination. Was there better this year? Yes, even in a weak year of movies, there were films that surpassed Frost/Nixon in quality. It has the "Phone Booth" and "Panic Room" problem: how can we make a movie enjoyable if it's basically people talking in the same place for the entire movie. I'm not a big Ron Howard fan. I don't know if he gets lucky with some of the performances that actors give him or what (minus Tom Hanks in The Da Vinci Code, of course), but I feel like he gets great source material but he can't push it to the next level. To be honest, there's nothing really wrong with Frost/Nixon. It's just that, there's nothing imaginative about it. If this were the same movie, but a work of fiction, would people care at all? Obviously not, and, to be fair, you can say that about many, many movies and performances. The interview scenes with Sheen and Langella are great. Langella capturing Nixon's every tick, as a great talker, an extremely smart man, with a lack of a moral compass and not exactly being a people person. And when (spoilers) he finally gets schooled and realized it, Langella provides one of the best reaction shots of the year. Demoralized and fallen, Langella plays Nixon in a way that seems like only he could, but Howard just doesn't bring out an excellent performance from him that would be on par with Mickey Rourke or Sean Penn this year. Sheen's performance is lost behind Langella but is still a rather good one. Same with Kevin Bacon, who surprisingly holds his own throughout his scenes with Nixon. With Howard though, there's just something there that's missing. I can't exactly put my finger on what it is but some of the scenes with Nixon at his house or when Frost is organizing the interview aren't anything to brag about from a filmmaking standpoint. Even the first few interviews just seem a little dull. I know it was based on historical events but you can't hang your film on one moment, unless it's a "Sixth Sense" like moment. And throughout the film, it just seems like it's depending on Nixon's confession rather than building up to it. I can't support a Directing nomination here for Ron Howard in what is a almost great film, but not monumental enough to be remembered as the movie that captured Nixon.

Grade: B-

If you liked Frost/Nixon, you might like...Nixon by Oliver Stone, a more demonizing, albeit controversial, portrait of Nixon.