Films, and such.

I just watched ‘Frost/Nixon’. What an engaging film, simple and well-made.

What an ironic film as well. Written about the set of interviews that ruined Nixon and tarnished his reputation, but it ends up giving a sympathetic lasting impression of the man. I’m not sure if that was what the director set out to achieve, but it ended up that way. Nixon is always casted as a villain of political history, but the film never makes a decision about him. He comes off as a man who made mistakes, a prideful man who is instilled with a determination to fight against his critics. Misguided perhaps, but certainly not an evil personality.

Ironically, a deleted scene in the film contained the best description of him. In his farewell speech to the White House, he speaks of T.R (I’m guessing Teddy Roosevelt?) and that as President, he was ‘sometimes wrong, sometimes right, but always a man’. He might have been talking about Roosevelt, but that pretty much sums up the overwhelming feel of Richard Nixon in the film. That Nixon did a lot of wrong things, but he wasn’t an evil, manipulative man, that at the core of his being, he was fragile and devasted by the turn of events during Watergate.
Now back to the film. A character-driven film such as this depends heavily on the ability of the actors and the script to engage. You must feel something about the characters in a character film, a bond, to generate interest in the movie. Needless to say, the casting was good, and the characters expertly acted out. Martin Sheen as David Frost was alright. He was competent in displaying the stress and turbulence that Frost must have felt during that period. It was a solid performance, at times uneven, although nothing spectacular. Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, on the other hand, was spectacular. He makes you feel conflicted about a character who, before the movie starts, is decidedly a villain. In one moment he is delicate, lonely and suffering. In another he is fierce, and almost sinister and terrifying. An entirely powerful performance. Langella was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy Award for this performance, but lost on both counts to Sean Penn’s portrayal of a gay politician in Milk. It must have been one hell of a performance, because Langella was almost perfect as Nixon, probably the best performance I’ve seen in a while. Kevin Bacon as Jack Brennan, the staunch supporter of Nixon, is commendable as well.

Ron Howard’s direction of the film is generally very good. He concentrates hard on the core of the film, which is the examination of both Frost and Nixon’s characters, and the events that surround the set of interviews. As a result, you are directly engaged in the film as he never allows the pace to fall off too much, and give a sense of urgency as the events unravel quickly before your eyes. Importantly he doesn’t get distracted by Rebecca Hall’s character and her romance with Frost, which was really important in ensuring the importance of the subject matter was respected. Many films are eager to use romance as a means to build character, but most of the time it merely distracts the audience from the plot and ends up being contrived. Instead, Howard cleverly employs seemingly irrelevant scenes and dialogue to shed light into the essence of the two characters. On the negative side, the faux interviews interspersed within the shows are a bit disappointing. The ‘interviews’ are probably intended to give an ‘insiders’ view into events, and as a chance to include some memorable one-liners. Instead, the dialogue within the interviews come out as generic and adds little value into the show. There are some gems within the deleted scenes which would’ve added more to the film, which probably should’ve been included in the place of those interviews. Also, Howard seems eager to include some observations on the power of television as a medium of communication. Whilst the subject matter is a television interview, these observations are a little half-hearted. If they are to be included, perhaps he would’ve done better to devote full attention to flesh out these opinions. Instead it comes off as random and one-sided views, which would’ve been better left on the cutting room floor.

All in all, an enjoyable film to watch, with a simple plot and great acting. Catch it if you can.