"Frost/Nixon" is a piece of history and a potential crowd-pleaser, all wrapped in one.

Rating: 8/10 (7 March 2009)

There he is, former President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella), at the end of his political life. It has been a few months since Watergate and his resignation and he has been reduced to being a guest speaker at low-profile conferences. Cue David Frost (Michael Sheen): The British talk show host is known for interviewing the crème de la crème of Hollywood and pop music and hosting shows about escape artists. With virtually no credentials in political journalism, he still decides to take on what could be considered the most important interview of the time. It's Richard Nixon's first big post-Watergate talk. Because money talks and also because Frost seems to be a safe bet as a soft-hitting interviewer to Nixon's team, he gets the job. Frost ends up "giving Richard Nixon the trial he never had," as Sam Rockwell's character puts it.
"Trial" is definitely the operative word here. "Frost/Nixon," which re-tells the story of one of the most memorable interviews in American history, plays like a cross between a boxing match and the best courtroom drama you have ever seen. It centers, of course, on the interviews themselves but also allows a glance backstage. You get to see how both parties prepare for the interviews, which is actually a bit like preparing for a boxing match, and what strain they are under. Nixon wants to rehabilitate himself. Frost needs the interviews to be spectacular, mostly because he has problems selling them to TV stations.
Above all, "Frost/Nixon" has the feel of a highly enjoyable play which after all, is where it originated. Still, it transforms seamlessly to the screen, mostly because of the excellent performances by Langella and Sheen. Even though Langella has been accused of "overdoing" his Nixon, he succeeds in capturing the spirit of the 37th U.S. president and has rightfully earned an Oscar nomination. The difficulty of accuracy versus artistic interpretation of the material is the same here as with all biopics and "true stories," or even more so, seeing as everyone can go back and look at the real Frost/Nixon interviews. Director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan, whose work includes "The Queen," succeed in finding a balance between realism and Hollywood-esquire appeal to audiences.