A More than Capable Film that Takes a Little Too Long to Get Moving

Rating: 7/10 (6 October 2011)

In 1972, several staff members of Richard Nixon's campaign are arrested for breaking into the Democratic National Convention's headquarters at the Watergate Office Complex. In 1974, Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) resigned as president. In 1977, British journalist and TV personality David Frost (Michael Sheen) conducts a series of twelve interviews with Richard Nixon concerning his actions as president. Forced to self-finance the $2 million endeavor, Frost and staff members Bob Zelnick (Oiver Platt) and James Reston Jr. (Sam Rockwell) seek to hold Nixon's feet to the fire and give him the trial that the American people were denied by President Ford's pardon.
"Frost/Nixon" (2008) is an excellently acted character drama. Frank Langella gives what is easily one of the most convincing performances of the year, deserving of every accolade and scrap of praise that he has earned with it. He gives an exquisite portrayal of the former president, capturing his every nuance and intricacy. Michael Sheen, masked in a shroud of easy charisma, reenacts the personable man-about-town David Frost. While Sheen fails completely transform into Frost in the same way that Langella succeeded as Nixon, he delivers a nonetheless commendable performance.
The film takes the same excessive liberties with the facts surrounding the Frost/Nixon interviews that Richard Nixon took with the office of the presidency. In of itself this isn't anything peculiar. The problem arises, however, is Ron Howard's choice to juxtapose the progressing plot of the film with documentary-esque interviews of those involved in the Frost/Nixon interviews. This creates a heightened and unjustified sense of authenticity concerning the depicted events, especially alongside the "documentation" of the Frost/Nixon interviews themselves. While there is nothing wrong with taking creative license in order to heighten the dramatic qualities of a historical drama, what Ron Howard engages in through these Moore-esque techniques is borders on the unethical.
Despite these extreme discrepancies in historic fact, as well as the excessively long buildup to the final interview session (an hour and on half), "Frost/Nixon" is a well-executed, engaging and ultimately successful film. It grants a degree of closure to an unresolved American trauma. Fans of Nixon-era and post-Nixon era politics, as well as dialog-driven dramas, will enjoy this film.