Very Compelling, Though Not Perfect

Rating: 8/10 (5 July 2018)

Ron Howard made no easy feat - to portray a seminal Forst / Nixon's 1977 Interviews wasa real ordeal. To depict such a deep, difficult, traduced, much maligned and very multi-faceted man as Richard Nixon was, is never a very sweet job. Oliver Stone did a huge task with his awesome 1995 movie, with powerful Sir Anthomy Hopkins as a main part.
Here, Howard used the obvious talents of such giants as Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, Michael Sheen as David Frost, Kevin Bacon as Jack Brennan, Oliver Platt as Bob Zelnick, Sam Rockwell as James Reston Jr., Matthew Macfadyen as John Birt., Rebecca Hall as Caroline Cushing, Patty McCormack as Pat Nixon and Toby Jones as Swifty Lazar, among many. They certanly showed very high class and shone like real Luminaries. But yet, a very itchy question remains - was it all done right?
Well, the biggest problem is the general tonality of the movie - it is way too syrupy and way too mecriless towards great late President, the film tries too hard to persuade us what an evil lonely monster Nixon was, and how great to see him smashed and grounded.
Oliver Stone did a far more weighed potrrayal of a tormented soul, with all his ups and downs.
The second biggest problem is shockingly Frank Langella - he is too old, too slwo, too bulky for avid, acidic, agile Nixon. The funniest fact is that Langella could have been better playing the very Leonid Brezhnev that his hero mentions so much.
To sum it up -
Fred Schwarz, writing for the conservative National Review online, said that, "Frost/Nixon is an attempt to use history, assisted by plenty of dramatic license, to retrospectively turn a loss into a win. By all accounts, Frost/Nixon does a fine job of dramatizing the negotiations and preparation that led up to the interviews. And it's hard to imagine Frank Langella, who plays a Brezhnev-looking Nixon, giving a bad performance. Still, the movie's fundamental premise is just plain wrong."