Frost/Nixon [M]

When disgraced former American President, Richard Nixon, agrees to do a series of interviews with jet-setting and vibrant television star, David Frost, he sees it as a chance to bring back some shine to his tarnished legacy. However, with  a name to live up to and a stereotypical reputation to overcome, Frost turns out to be Nixon’s most formidable adversary, engaging the former President into a heavily charged battle where there can only be one winner. 

It’s brilliant films like these that spark interest in a younger audience to pay more attention to history and politics. Filled with dazzling performances, drama, comedy, and ambition, Frost/Nixon is a wonderful movie that really brought life to a few subjects that a younger audience would usually find deadly dull. IT’S JUST STUNNING! 

When disgraced former American President, Richard Nixon, agrees to do a series of interviews with jet-setting and vibrant television star, David Frost, he sees it as a chance to bring some shine back to his tarnished legacy. However, with a name to live up to, a reputation to overcome, and a career on the line, Frost turns out to be Nixon’s most formidable adversary, engaging the former President in a supercharged battled where there can only be one winner. 

This film was engaging right from the off. With a few post-interview interviews interspersed throughout the film, it is a perfectly balanced film, in that it has moments of intense and heavy drama, but provides moments of relief where the audience can take a breath and absorb what has just happened. It’s spot-on filmmaking is what it is. 

The script and the screenplay for the film was wonderful too because, along with the little interviews with the characters scattered throughout the film, there are moments of levity and light, witty, comedy that play against the more intense dramas and political themes. That’s what I really liked about the movie, it sort of simplified themes like politics and history that I usually find hard to grasp. 

Michael Sheen stars as David Frost and he was just perfect. He delivered a performance that was brilliantly showman-like, conveying memorable moments of wit, drama, trouble, despair, and subtle ambition. You just completely fell in love with him, and his character was perfect to play against that of the reserved and not-so-charming Nixon. He was just fantastic! 

The real star of the show, however, was Frank Langella who played Nixon. It’s amazing to see actors playing the roles of famous and influential people, and seeing how amazingly like them they can be. I don’t want to say “imitate” because it’s not the right word, what Langella does is this movie is physically and emotionally inhabit Nixon, almost channelling him really. He delivered a most tremendously moving performance that was aggressive, sincere, sometimes funny, defensive, and deeply, deeply moving. Seriously, aside from Colin Firth in The King’s Speech, I haven’t been so deeply moved and mesmerised by such a performance! 

Starring Sam Rockwell, Rebecca Hall, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, Clint Howard, Matthew MacFayden, and Toby Jones, Frost/Nixon was a fantastic drama filled with comedy, passion, ambition, romance, and memorable, memorable performances. Seriously, watch it because it was just a stunning film!