It's in the Eyes, really

Rating: 8/10 (18 February 2009)

You don't have to look like Nixon to portray him. That point was already proved by Sir Anthony Hopkin's in Oliver Stone's film of the same name. But while Mr. Stone's film was a biopic, this one focuses on only one- and also, what would become the last- public chapter in the disgraced president's life.
In that sense, Frank Langella's role is far more difficult: he had to convey the entire meaning of a man's life sitting at an interview, and using nothing more than words and- this, I believe, is the key to understanding his performance- expressions, in particular, the way he uses his eyes. No, he doesn't cry or stare; he doesn't even look away; what he does is that he doesn't look at you. And that's telling a lot about the man he portrays.
In the famous interviews, Mr. Langella's verbal evasiveness just doesn't sync with what his eyes are screaming aloud. David Frost, it would seem, already had his confession long before President Nixon uttered those famous lines; long before the interviews started, even.
I guess Frost's real brilliance lay in realizing this before anyone else- and then, risking everything he had to get the interviews. In making this aspect clear, Ron Howard's film makes a contribution no history book or archival footage possibly can. Nixon's confession wasn't redemptive for the American nation only; more importantly, it was an act of self-redemption for the man who made it.
Langella/Nixon doesn't admit this, but we can read it very clearly in his eyes.