Review of Frost/Nixon (2008) by James K — 08 Dec 2015

Frost/Nixon is a movie that is beloved by critics. A theatre play that is turned into a motion picture is sometimes hit or miss, and in my opinion this is a miss. And that is coming from someone like myself who is fascinated with Richard Nixon and this period in American history.

First and foremost I know that Frank Langela plays the role of Nixon in the play on stage. I understand that, and he's wildly popular among critics and theatregoers for his portrayal of this complicated man.

I really must be missing something here, because I just don't see it at all. There is nothing Nixon about him in the slightest. He doesn't look anything like him, he doesn't sound anything like him and honestly his portrayal of Nixon is really not authentic what so ever.

Langela plays Nixon as a flawed but very arrogant and sure of himself guy, which is not the case. Nixon was not only flawed, but socially awkward, depressed, introverted, self conscious and flat out strange.

The portrayal is just all wrong in my opinion. Michael Sheen does a fantastic job playing David Frost however and I highly enjoyed his performance. The movie itself for a hardcore Nixon or political fan of this period, is probably something right up your alley.

But does this topic have enough substance for a major motion picture that spans 2 hours ? Not a chance. I found myself getting bored with this movie rather quickly. If you want to watch a movie about Nixon do yourself a favor and just watch Nixon by Oliver Stone, or go even a step further and watch the real actual interviews that this movie is based upon.