Review of Frost/Nixon (2008) by Peter A — 13 Mar 2012

To take a tale we are all conversant with - and, to be frank, not a rivetting one on the face of it - and to inject it with so much substance, emotion and tension is nothing short of a marvel. That is what is achieved here.

A film about a series of interviews with a disgraced president sounds more like documentary material to be screened in art houses in the early hours of the morning than a film nominated for several serious awards. Credit for such a transformation is due in no small measure to director Ron Howard and the two leads: Martin Sheen and Frank Langella, both of whom at times are indistinguishable from the real characters they play.

Given the beefier part, it is Langella's portrayal of the tortured Nixon that stands out. The landscape that is his face shifts in turn from swagger, sorrow and ultimately shame.

Any open book of a story that is turned into a film classic has to be applauded.

Frost is betrayed as surprisingly frothy; Nixon a condundrum of a man for whom one ultimately feels for.

This could so easily have been just another movie about a historical event that was fashioned with a hammer and chisel. As it is, it has been sculptured by a scalpel.