Review of Frost/Nixon (2008) by Shawn D — 31 Aug 2018

More than "news" to ears..

Frost/Nixon.

Frost/Nixon is a character driven political drama about an interview that changes the life of a president whose controversies led him to leave the political career. As much as brilliant Howard's cast is, not all of them delivers or even justifies the script with their performance.

The urge of his, to cast that resonates a lot to the actual personas is both pro and con since it barrs the feature on performance level and on the other hand, the environment created in here feels real and that's saying a lot. As mentioned, the crisp is alive and pulsating on screen that cuts deeper than ever among the characters and the palpable tone offered to them.

Howard's structure as always follows a textbook equation, but it is done with such panache in here that it may remind you of "A Beautiful Mind". The writing is smarter, adaptive and gripping with layered dialogues and fine polishing of the script that keeps it short and to the point.

It may be short on technical aspects like background score and art designing but has a fine cinematography. It is shot nicely with decent camera work that brings out the best from each frame. Langella has never been better in his portrayal and so is Sheen with an impressive work and support by Bacon, Rockwell, Platt and Hall.

Morgan's screenplay is layered and is justified aptly by Howard's execution skills that communicates unflinchingly with the viewers. The detailed research done by the makers, the three part interview and Langella's performance at the heart of it are the high points of the feature.

Frost/Nixon is an essentially well crafted act as much as it is politically, and since it speaks volume through character's perspective, it is more than "news" to ears.