An Intellectual Boxing Match

Rating: 8/10 (15 December 2008)

Ron Howard successfully adapts Peter Morgan's play about the Frost/Nixon interviews to celluloid. This film does not fall flat, it keeps pace and keeps the audience enthralled in the story line. Frost/Nixon is not a rehashing of the Watergate scandal nor is it a history lesson given by Ron Howard. Frost/Nixon is an intellectual boxing match between two men where the stakes are high; the winner takes it all, the loser falls into anonymity.
Frank Langella had been living with Richard Nixon inside him for almost two years, he starred in the stage production of Frost/Nixon on Broadway and then went right into shooting the film with Ron Howard. What resulted was an intoxicating performance by Langella. Every eyebrow raise, every dart of the eyes, every gesture was as if Langella had created Nixon in himself and was intuitively reacting to every situation as Nixon would. What was so compelling about his performance was the emotion and humor we saw in Nixon. This certainly was never Nixon's public persona, to see the emotion gave me great compassion for the pain he held inside and his longing for acceptance.
The film's highlight, a midnight phone call between an intoxicated Nixon and exhausted Frost, is one of the most intriguing and darkest moments of Langella's impeccable portrayal of Nixon. This is the moment Nixon is opened up and we see all of his inner demons fly out. Frost/Nixon is a complex character study set in a distinct time in American History. I think Langella has a deep respect for Nixon the man, he understands that Nixon was a great human, but still, only a human.
A film worth watching.