Frost/Nixon is Ron Howard‘s new movie, written by Peter Morgan (based on his play) and starring Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Matthew Macfadyen and Rebecca Hall.

Plot:
Richard Nixon [Frank Langella] is the first president to resign after the Watergate scandal and shortly after, there’s a general pardon for him. David Frost [Michael Sheen], a talk show host, decides to interview him to get to the truth. What follows is a David vs Goliath style battle between two people who don’t know what to expect from the other.

The casting and playing, the directing, the screenplay are all formidable. It has a few lengths, though, and wouldn’t have suffered from a few cuts.

[I keep saying that about movies. I’m worried about my attention span. Seriously am.]

Michael Sheen and Frank Langella were both in the play before and I think that it was a good move to have them in the movie. Not only are they brilliant actors as it is, this further acquaintance and experience with their characters makes for an even deeper performance, where every look and every little gesture is perfect. The late night phone call in particular had me grasping my seat. It was awesome.

But don’t let me praise only these two, because the whole cast was great. Kevin Bacon and Sam Rockwell might be, together with Tim Roth, some of the most underrated actors ever. But also Oliver Platt, who does a good Nixon as well and Matthew Maxfadyen could hold their own.

The only one who went under was Rebecca Hall. Which is not entirely her fault, as it felt like she was only there so that at least one woman was in this movie. She didn’t contribute and honestly, she wasn’t much better than the chair Frost was sitting on. And she had less charisma.

Apart from that complete concentration on men, which in this case I can pardon for historical circumstances etc., the screenplay was very good. It managed to keep up solid tension, except for a couple of scenes, where it dragged a little bit.

It also was suprisingly funny. There were actually quite a few laugh out loud moments.

I really liked the half documentary set-up, with the interviews etc. It never got too much and was a good interruption for a movie that could have been a little dreary otherwise.

Ron Howard’s directing was confident and maybe a little too experienced. There were no surprises, neither bad nor good and you knew how the thing would go right from the beginning.

That said, I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing, since it gave you room to really concentrate on the story and the characters. It also fit the rest of the thing. Having the movie with a lot of experimental shots etc. would have felt out of place.

Summarising, I’d say it’s a very good film but I wouldn’t recommend it unreservedly. I think that people who are not interested in politics or who need more action will be bored with it.