As enjoyable as it is informative

Rating: Null/10 (21 December 2008)

David Frost is a light entertainment chat show host with reasonable global fame. Richard Nixon is a disgraced President, stepping down from office in light of allegations of his involvement in the Watergate Scandal. For career reasons, Frost decides to set up a series of interviews, at great cost and increasing personal risk. With both men playing a game to get what they want (for Frost, a career boost and some revelations, for Nixon, his chance to put the record straight as he sees it), the interviews begin recording while the mainstream media fail to show an interest.
The interviews in question have always been known to me, but this is not the same as me knowing about them in any meaningful way  which I did not. I had always wanted to see the play when I saw the adverts for it in the paper but never got myself to London to do so  nor did I ever think of it long enough to buy the original interviews themselves. However as a result of seeing the film I will be getting the original interviews as a Christmas gift to myself. The reason for this is that the film version did a great job of presenting the event as culturally important, without overlooking the rather "insignificant" manner in which it all started out originally  with the whole project being a bit of a laughing stock. It also makes me want to see the play because the script has done such a good job of capturing the characters and the time  especially useful when a large section of the audience will not know a lot about this period and the people other than the names and that we use "gate" to describe anything dodgy in politics. This script is the basis for the drama but Howard does well as director to convey what is going on at key points while he otherwise delivers a typically professional film in all other regards. At first I wasn't totally sure of the structuring device of having talking heads looking back but it never became spoon feeding so much as it was a useful way of telling the story and providing insight.
The cast are very good. Sheen has already shown that he can do impressions without losing his performance and he does it again here  giving us enough of Frost to be instantly recognisable but not to the detriment of his performance. It is Langella that dominates the film with his Nixon  a great character that is hard to do and be compelling but yet he manages it here. The support cast are just that but they are also solidly good with turns from Bacon, Rockwell, Macfadyen, Platt and others. Frost/Nixon is not a fast or thrilling film and I'm sure that the message board will have people complaining "is that it", but let them carry on demonstrating their failings and just enjoy the film because, even without the cultural importance of the events, it is still a professionally crafted and engaging drama that is as enjoyable as it is informative.