Two great performances in what may be Ron Howard's finest film.

Rating: 8/10 (30 July 2009)

Ron Howard's finest film? I had certainly not expected Howard to direct a political drama surrounding the famous 1977 interviews of President Richard Nixon by TV host David Frost, that's for certain. Starting off with a montage of newsreels, cut-out photos and names on paper, the film takes on a sort of documentary style (aptly named 'mockumentary') as we see the characters of the film interviewed by a unrepresented behind camera - it's like Howard deals with this as pure fact, something it is - well, sort of. Howard, and screenwriter Peter Morgan (who also wrote the original stage act), has taken liberties in creating this drama, which happily is for the better; they narrow it down, they pace it smartly as a duel of two eventually either falling or rising stars, and although the dialogs are very politically concerned (off course), they remain vital and full of energy - much to Morgan's screen writing, but mostly to Michael Sheen's swaggering performance as Frost and Frank Langella's hunching lion of Nixon. For me, this was a left-hook from Howard, and if this is him doing it alternative, can we please have more?