Review of Frost/Nixon (2008) by Armonda. — 29 Dec 2008

It's easy to expect too much of this film, even if you know before seeing it that Nixon never acknowledged the depth and breadth of his malfeasance and misfeasance. I've followed this saga for the past 35 years and I certainly knew that Frost's coup was relatively modest.

Yet I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat as Frost finally got down to business and Nixon's grand-old-statesman persona began to crumble. That's really good filmmaking. Ron Howard sure knows how to build a story and how to heighten drama through the use of very solid, classic camera-work.

But the director's skill wouldn't have given us such a fine film without a worthy performance by the leading actor; Frank Langella's Nixon is just remarkable. In fact, Langella puts something into the film that almost makes up for the absence of a real "confession" .

He gives us a sense of Nixon the human being. That doesn't mean that one comes away feeling sorry for the man. But if insight into those whom we dislike is of value, and I think it is, Langella, Howard, and all the supporting cast and crew give us a genuine gift in their depiction of a man who was immensely talented and heroically persistent but also narcissistically mortified, lonely, and petty.