A Compelling Fascinating Look Behind The Scenes

Rating: 8/10 (20 January 2019)

15 January 2009. What's powerful about this movie is the story of how this momentous interview even came about and Nixon's purportedly insightful and extended response to Frost's question about President Nixon's involvement in a crime and the consequences of his actions on the public. Unlike the trailers, the movie is more about the immense difficulties that led up to the actual interview and the powerful and emotional look at the former President, the human face. Nevertheless, there were areas of the movie that appeared to detract from the full impact of this amazing journalist event. Earlier on, there were a number of humorous bits of funny scenes and then they suddenly disappeared from the rest of the movie, the pseudo-documentary format, particularly in the beginning was jarring and strangely appeared to lend less credibility to the movie (more like a docudrama than either a documentary or drama), the Frank Langella's gait, posture appeared at times to be sort of an aped, artificial caricature of the President than the real thing, and finally there were some confusing ambiguous timelines and editing selections that appeared to interfere the pacing and understanding of what was happening in the movie midway through the movie. Overall, this movie was a strikingly informative, revealing look at the precarious nature of this important news event and the human face behind it. Eight out of Ten Stars.