Howard's Best Film Since A Beautiful Mind

Rating: 10/10 (3 February 2019)

Real life has proven time and again to be a fertile ground for the creative. The career of filmmaker Ron Howard is no exception with such films as Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind being among the most successful and acclaimed of his career. There's also Frost/Nixon, his 2008 film based on Peter Morgan's successful stage play. While not as financially successful as those earlier works, it is every bit a choice piece of filmmaking.
That it is so is something owed, in large part, to the pedigree of its script. Morgan not only scripted the original stage play but its screen counterpart and it is something that shows. Comparing his original text with the film, it becomes even more clear how faithful of an adaptation Howard gives viewers. The dialogue is all there, expanded upon in places, and the director isn't afraid to "open up the play," that is to broaden it for what the screen is capable of presenting versus the stage. It can sometimes be the kiss of death to do so, but Frost/Nixon stands as an example of how to do it and do it right.
Perhaps that is down to Howard and his production team understanding what the story they're telling is. The director described the film in special features on its home video release as "a thinking person's Rocky," and that is a solid description of it. Frost/Nixon is ultimately a power struggle between its two titular characters, both men down and out in their way and trying to clamber back up their respective ladders. It's interesting that in the "documentary" segments of the film, where the chorus aspects of the original play are utilized and expanded upon, don't feature either of the leads. The film is an intellectual boxing match between those men, the four interview sessions becoming rounds in the sport between them, that final session where Frost can ask questions about Watergate becoming the all-important moment. Along the way, the film raises questions about the intersection of politics, celebrity, media, and our perceptions of reality, something which makes the film perhaps even more relevant a decade after its initial release.
The film has another Howard trademark: the ensemble cast. Leading it in the eponymous roles are the two actors who created the characters on stage: Frank Langella as Richard Nixon and Michael Sheen as David Frost. Nixon has been portrayed on screen many times and in many different ways but Langella's take on the still controversial 37th American President ranks with Anthony Hopkins as among the best screen presentations of him. Langella captures, despite being considerably taller and broader than the real man, the sense of Nixon the introvert. That here is a shy, sweaty, insecure man who has thrust himself into the public eye and is doing so once more because he knows not what else to do with himself. Further, Langella's Nixon is a man who would prefer not to be looking back into his past but who is forced to do so, perhaps subconsciously driving himself to face his demons in front of a massive television audience. It's an immensely watchable, engaging performance and it remains a shame Langella did not win the Oscar for it.
That is not to diminish Michael Sheen in the role of David Frost, the oft-overlooked half of the titular duo. Sheen as Frost is everything that Langella's Nixon is not: handsome, well dressed, a ladies man, and pushing himself into the public eye because it's what he does. Frost is an entertainer whose drug is adulation and ratings with him seeing the Nixon interviews as a chance to try and make it big in America. In doing so, like any gambler, he is putting a lot on the line to the point of risking outright failure. But while he may not have started on this path with the noblest of intentions, Sheen's performance makes it clear that Frost realizes he's placed himself on a mission that he must succeed at and not just for his own sake. Sheen's performance is every bit as gripping as his co-star's and one of the best of his career to date.
Backing the pair is the rest of an ensemble cast assembled by Howard. Keeping up the boxing analogy, they can almost be divided up into teams for the lead characters. On the Frost side, there's Matthew Macfadyen as British producer John Birt in an understated role with Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell as the researchers brought in with Rockwell Jim Reston being almost a voice of conscience for Frost. An extension of Frost's team is Rebecca Hall in the role of Caroline Cushing, the charming British socialite who gets drawn into events and manages to about charm everyone she meets. On the Nixon side, Kevin Bacon plays Nixon's chief of staff Jack Brennan in a part that sees the actor slide into solid character actor territory and the ever dependable Toby Jones as Nixon's agent Swifty Lazar. Add on Howard regulars such as his brother Clint in addition to cameos from Googy Gress, Marc McClure, and Joe Spano and the result is as steadfast a cast as you're likely to get in one of his films. One which brings the events the film depicts to life superbly.
Ably backing both Howard and his cast is his behind the scenes team. The challenges of a film like Frost/Nixon is to recreate the past both faithfully but also in a cinematic fashion. All involved do so nicely with particular attention to detail played to the house used in the actual interview. Elsewhere, production designer Michael Corenblith and costume designer Daniel Orlandi create a vision of the 1970s that is at once believable but also cinematically pleasing to the eye. The latter down in part to the excellent cinematography of Salvatore Totino with an almost fly on the wall approach to much of the proceedings. The sparse but effective score from Hans Zimmer is the icing on the cake, with all of these elements helping bring the film to life beautifully.
The result? Howard's best film since A Beautiful Mind at the start of the decade and one he still has not topped. More that, it stands as a superb example of how to take a successful stage play and bring it to life on film. It also tells a story that remains, perhaps surprisingly given its subject matter is more than four decades in the past, relevant to the here and now. That speaks to the power of both Morgan's script and Howard's skills as a filmmaker.