Read my review of 'Frost/Nixon", I promise I am not a critic crook!

Rating: 8/10 (19 January 2009)

"Frosty the Hostman was a very busy nose-body, he wanted to get the ex-Prez Nixon to confess and to come back to life some day." Maybe that is not the ideal mature way to describe the plot of Director Ron Howard's "Frost/Nixon", but it does give some precise insight on the film. "Frost/Nixon" is based on the infamous interviews between British talk show host David Frost and former President Richard Nixon which took place a few years after Nixon's resignation due to that little water-spill people call Watergate. Veteran actor Frank Langella commands screen presence with his presidential performance as Richard Nixon, and Michael Sheen continues his steady acting play portraying influential figures caught up in government scandals with his charismatic performance as Frost. The goal of Team Frost was to get Richard Nixon to confess or as one of the Team Frost members states "give Nixon the trial he never had". The interviews took place in 1977 which were a couple of years after Nixon resigned. The former President was living a tranquil life with his wife during that time; but he was sickened to be held down to incongruent public speaking gigs. He wanted to be back in the limelight so he accepted Frost's offer for the interviews; and it did not matter that Nixon also got a hefty paycheck from all of this. They do not call him Tricky Dick for nothing. Team Frost consisted of Bob Zelnick and James Reston Jr., two investigative reporters who were consumed and fixated on a Nixon conviction; in addition Frost's producer John Brit was also a major player in Team Frost. I especially liked Sam Rockwell's restless performance as Reston Jr. The hottest Team Frost member had to be (by a long-shot) Caroline Cushing, a nice cushy intellect beauty that Frost meets in a plane and inadvertently becomes part of "the high mile club", I mean part of Team Frost. The up-an-coming Rebecca Hall does some nice work here as Cushing. Speaking of fine acting and its degree, it now leads me to Kevin Bacon; his degree of acting connected again with viewers by his portrayal of Nixon aide Jack Brennan. The set of interviews which took place between Frost and Nixon never did reveal an actual confession from Nixon, but there were definitely physical and verbal signs of lifelong regret from Richie Rich. Tricky Dick did shoot a few verbal jabs at Frost during the first interview, but then Frost kept his cool and made a nice comeback during the latter interviews. What caused Frost to power up? Was it verbal steroids? Was it verbal sabotage or blackmail? Watch the movie and you will find out. Screenwriter Peter Morgan and Director Ron Howard proved they can "talk the talk and walk the walk" within their praiseworthy film-making exertion in devising the realistic Frost/Nixon interview scenes of the film. I also liked how Howard carried the film into other areas as in the media's inner workings, the fixation to protect superiors at all costs, and how insignificant daily rituals can have mammoth impacts. "Frost/Nixon" did drag at times but the man Nixon himself was also a bit of a drag. "Frost/Nixon" does not get my vote as the best film of the year, but is one you should not resign yourself from viewing. **** Good