Performance by an actor in a leading role - Frank Langella
Achievement in directing - Ron Howard
Best motion picture of the year
Where?
Shaftesbury Avenue, 845pm (straight after The Reader, although I did pause, not wanting to dissipate the thoughts and feelings generated from watching that movie. A hunger for popcorn, missed due to a late arrival time at The Reader, made the decision for me).
Comments?
Frost/Nixon is about the disintegration of power and the decline of a political figure. It is also about show business and what makes good show business, what makes or breaks a career in entertainment and what the masses enjoy the most during prime time. It's about the numbers and it's about the lies.
Richard Nixon and Watergate. David Frost and a career on the brink. History brought them together in a head to head battle recorded on tape and shown to a worldwide audience. And to the winner goes the spoils.
Nothing excites me more than to watch a moment in history play out- it sends shivers up your spine and you know as you witness it that this moment is another chapter in world history. The next best thing to being there is to experience a dramatic representation of the event, to live it as it was lived, to understand what it felt like to be in the crowd in Dallas when the shots rang out, to feel the pressure of the last moments during the Cuban Missile Crisis, to wonder what the hell Harold Holt was doing jumping into the sea (okay, maybe not). It excites you, it scares you and it makes you wonder about the "what ifs". JFK, Thirteen Days, United 93, Saving Private Ryan, even a movie like Zodiac - all these depictions of real events are amazing to watch and interesting to debate.
Oliver Stone did it best in JFK. Sure the details were questionable, but there was such a sense of being there in that movie, of reliving the events of the assassination as if it was happening for the first time - and you are there, watching it happen. It drew me in for three hours and hasn't left me since.
This was what I was hoping for in Frost / Nixon. Unfortunately, it failed me. Don't get me wrong, it is a very good movie and the performances of Frank Langella and Michael Sheen are flawless. I just think Ron Howard let the side down and could taken more risks with his direction, brought the audience, made the movie more visceral and less intellectual.
There is a moment in the movie when the camera focuses on Frost (Sheen) asking a probing question directly into the camera. The image whirs across, the camera swivelling around to face Nixon (Langella) to receive his reply, right up close, face to face. At that moment, however brief it was, I felt drawn in as if on a roller coaster ride - I got excited. The camera whirred again, but not back to Frost but to the team waiting in the Green Room, egging him on. I visibly sunk into my seat, disappointed. This great use of the camera never reappeared and for the remainder of the movie I may as well have been watching the original interview. Albeit it trivial and minor, that camera pan was a glimpse at what might have been.
Frost / Nixon is a good movie, no doubt about that, and hats go off to the lead actors, who perfected their roles, giving us a sense of pity and sorrow for Nixon and a feeling of buoyancy for Frost. It just ain't no JFK.
Oscar worthy?
There is no doubting that Frank Langella's performance as Richard Nixon is a masterful one and very entertaining to watch but I don't think it deserves Oscar glory. During the movie, it felt like you were just watching someone act like Nixon as opposed to watching Nixon himself, a weakness inherent in the role and one that doesn't take anything away from Langella's acting ability. It is a shame that Michael Sheen wasn't nominated for Best Supporting Actor but that race has already been won too in my opinion. As for the movie itself, it shouldn't poll well for directing or best picture, although it may do well in Best Screenplay (Adapted).
Rating?
7 out of 10
Post Movie Quote:
"Must jump on to You Tube to see the real thing."
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