Frost/Nixon (2008)

As the cameras prepare to roll on David Frost's first taped interview with Richard Nixon, the disgraced former president secures a provision to be allowed regular opportunities to dab his upper lip with a hankerchief off-camera. "You're probably aware of my history with perspiration," Nixon teases, a clear reference to the infamous televised debate that all but secured Kennedy's victory over Nixon in 1960.
As viewers of Ron Howard's latest film, an adaptation of Peter Morgan's award-winning stage play, FROST/NIXON, we are reminded in that moment once again that television was, perhaps, the true nemesis of Richard Nixon, an otherwise brilliant, cultured and dryly witty man who appeared to lack one key skill needed by every politician from that point on: the ability to manipulate the media.
Any yet, as the cameras roll for the first in their interviews, it quickly becomes apparent that Nixon learned something from his mistakes. As tainted as his presidency may have been, this was not a man who was about to allow a British talk show host to bring him down. And so, Nixon wins round one by essentially fillibustering the two-hour long interview with long, rambling responses that lacked aggression, rendering Frost all but mute. Game on.
I was captivated by FROST/NIXON. I daresay that this might be Ron Howard's best film. If it's not, it's up there. Not since Oliver Stone's JFK has history been so swiftly engaging on a movie screen.
It's an amusing coincidence that I saw this film on the same day that Illinois Governor Rod BloGo(however you spell it) was arrested on corruption charges. Complete with its own wire-tapping, the current situation brings the Nixon era to mind in uncanny ways.
But back to FROST/NIXON, a classic cinematic cat-and-mouse exchange between the scrappy underdog (Frost) and the world-weary heavyweight (Nixon). There is no reason to believe that Frost, a lightweight journalist prior to scoring the Nixon interviews, is up to the challenge of taking on "Tricky Dick." Nor is there reason to believe that Nixon will be able to do anything to appear presidential or dignified in the wake of his public shame.
And yet both men clearly rise to the occassion, and the performances by Michael Sheen and, especially, Frank Langella, convey these facts with exciting clarity. The barbs, jabs and exchanges between the two men are constantly engaging -- from the moment Nixon offends Frost with a comment about his "effeminant," laceless Italian shoes with seconds to go before the camera rolls, to Frost's immediate and on-camera return volley of asking Nixon why he didn't destroy "the tapes" as his first question, a violation of the terms of the interviews.
And so it goes, back and forth. And it escalates in intensity. And Howard expands the intimacy of the stage play only slightly, by adding archival footage and surrounding the lead performers with strong supporting performances by Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon and Oliver Platt.
I haven't seen "W." yet, but Bush-haters criticized Oliver Stone for doing the unthinkable for a liberal director and allowing audiences to feel sympathy for the president. Howard doesn't exactly do the same, but he does something equally important and relevant; he makes Nixon as intelligent and clever as he is desperate and manipulative.
Taking a cue from Stone's JFK, Howard builds to the "Zapruder film moment" of FROST/NIXON when Frost confronts Nixon on camera specifically for a confession and apology. If you know your history, you know what happens. But that does not make the moment, or any other in FROST/NIXON, any less compelling to watch.

3.5 out of 4