Only one of us can win

Rating: 8/10 (6 June 2009)

"Those who heard me on radio thought I'd already won. I lost the 1960 elections because of perspiration on my brow and above my lips" says Nixon prior to the start of the interview. Alluding to one of the most celebrated events in the history of television (the televised debates between Kennedy and Nixon before the 1960 Presidential Elections), the lines ram home the idea that it might be worthwhile going out of the way to project an image of confident repose rather than banking entirely on content. This is one of the major purports of the film - the impressions that images on television make on people and what they make of the same. Based on Peter Morgan's (writer for Frost/Nixon, The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) 2006 play of the same name, and featuring the same leads, the film portrays the events lacing the famed 1977 interviews of Richard Nixon by British talk show host David Frost. As the title indicates quite literally, it was make or break for the two - Nixon seeking to salvage his reputation and rebuild on his political career while earning dough from the same (he was offered $ 600,000 + 20 % of the profits) and Frost trying to further his career. In the lead-up to the interview, two men with contrasting personalities and world-views are portrayed in their bid to deal with the upcoming event. The paradox is summed up by a Nixon line towards the end when he asks Frost if he enjoys all those parties he gives. At Frost's yes, Nixon remarks, "You have the gift then. Of liking people. Being liked by people. This facility. I never had it". In etching out this contrast, the narrative avoids being primarily about Nixon in a calculative yet regretful phase. As it is, Nixon is easily the most compelling political figure of modern times and a movie that has anything to do with him will inescapably veer towards the irony of it all. With a portrayal like the one Frank Langella has fleshed out here, the other aspects of the film are very nearly overshadowed.
Michael Sheen as Frost is all ambition and balance. The support cast delivers (with the possible exception of a miscast Matthew Macfadyen) - Kevin Bacon does his reliable, steady-as-a-rock confidante, Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell provide the counterpoints to Frost's liberalism. Toby Jones as the enterprising agent who arranges the deal is the stand-out supporting performance. Rebecca Hall's Caroline Cushing isn't merely eye-candy, it furthers the contrast between the leads - Frost is able to juggle and balance out quite a few things at a time. Ron Howard (director) steers the film clear of the play-like feel that other films with origins in successful plays (Closer) couldn't avoid. Only later on does it develop such a feel, at a juncture where the movie depends on the tete-a-tete between Sheen and Langella. Peter Morgan may have had a lot to do with the framing of the structure of the narrative. If it is so, then his established credentials as a playwright and screenwriter have been enhanced further.
Peppered with wit and political satire, there is something in the fact that this film aims more at amusing than raising any serious questions about the role of media or even in portraying the Frost - Nixon interviews as watershed events in the history of media and journalism. For what Frost manages to extract from Nixon during the last bout of the interview is not so much a confession to the world but a confession to the self and Frost isn't motivated by concerns that involve filtering out the truth. In an expected turn, he comes to sympathize with the man in the spotlight and is appreciative of the mettle it takes to make an admission of guilt. This event did not open up a new means for investigative journalism and mass media to ally against corruption at the highest level; indeed, there have hardly been other coups of a similar nature since then. Howard and Morgan, knowing this, have shied away from making it out to be an epoch-making event of sorts of the last half a century. Instead we have, as mentioned earlier, a portrait of contrasts and an acknowledgement of the impressionistic role of television.