Frost/Nixon Review

If I told you “Frost/Nixon” is the year’s best sports movie, you’d probably think I was nuts, right?

You’d probably be wondering how a movie about a series of 1977 TV interviews between British TV personality David Frost (Michael Sheen) and disgraced former president Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) counts as a sports movie, since “verbal jousting” isn’t really a sport.

To be fair, this even more out there than my assessment that “Wall-E” was the best love story in the past couple of years, but I stand by it.

The key lies in the energetic way director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan (adapting his own play) have staged the showdown between the lighthearted TV star and the intellectual, tricky, weirdly-charismatic ex-president as the ultimate boxing match.

I love the way each side had their own teams — though we spend more time with Frost’s people, which includes very solid work from Oliver Platt, Matthew MacFadyen and a passionate Sam Rockwell — and the way each side rallied around their combatant (like a cornerman in boxing match) when there was a break in the action. The fact that the interviews were split into 12 sessions (or rounds) also worked out perfectly, as did one side dominating the other before a dramatic 12th round, I mean 12th session comeback.

However, the interviews themselves — which I particularly enjoy because I interview people for a living — turn out to be half of the movie’s pleasures. The other half is watching the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by Frost’s and Nixon’s squads, which include an overly aggressive Jack Brennan (who may or may not have a crush on Nixon) and Toby Jones as Swifty Lazar (I like that his name is “Swifty”).

The movie is staged in a documentary style with the actors playing real-life characters and giving their accounts of events. I’ve never seen the stage show, so I don’t now how different all this is from the play.

All I know that it absolutely works in the movie medium. I try to avoid comparing movies as much as possible, but as far as stage-to-screen adaptations go, this one kicks the recent “Doubt” in the butt. The main difference, of course, is that “Frost/Nixon” has a competent, Oscar-winning director at the helm, while the guy who directed “Doubt” hadn’t made a movie in 20 years. It shows as Howard makes what could potentially be a very boring subject electrifying with an understated, but very present style (love the 70’s clothes and décor).

Of course, just like John Patrick Shanley in “Doubt”, Howard gets an excellent assist from his lead actors, who reprise the roles they played on stage.

Langella doesn’t particularly look like Nixon (ok, he doesn’t look ANYTHING like him), but he embodies the character and transforms into the former president without ever really resorting to a full-on impersonation. His Nixon is sneaky, anti-social, intimidating, magnetic and brilliant. One of the characters in the movie expresses that his biggest fear with the Frost interviews is that the audience would end up feeling sympathy for Nixon. Langella doesn’t go so far as to drum up sympathy for him, but instead is perfectly happy with creating a fully-realized and flawed human being.

The shame of this awards season is that nobody seems to be noticing that Michael Sheen does almost as good a job. His Frost is an aloof, popular TV personality who seems perfectly content with his frivolous lifestyle and celebrity, but Sheen’s performance does express sadness and a lack of fulfillment early on in the movie. It’s not so much that Frost yearns for respectability — it’s more that he wants to recover the former glory he once possessed (he was a bigger star when he had a show in New York), and that makes him a lot more like his interview subject that he probably imagined.

In fact, Morgan’s script (and Howard’s direction) is full of fascinating details and characterizations that illustrate the differences and similarities of Frost and Nixon. While Frost is often mingling at posh parties, Nixon is usually lurking in a dark room and looks miserable when he’s out in the day light. Despite Frost’s lighthearted reputation, a TV interview appeared to be right in his wheelhouse, since Nixon had famously looked so bad on TV in his debates with Kennedy, but early on, it’s Nixon who looks like he’s been on TV his entire life and Frost who looks like a fidgety, overwhelmed fool.

I still feel like Howard and Morgan's greatest achievement is taking a story about a very specific thing in American history (I hadn't even heard of Frost or about the fact that he'd gotten Nixon to admit wrongdoing and apologize on TV until I heard of this play) and make it relevant and come alive today. (I'm sure there are more than a few people out there who'd love to hear a certain former Commander-in-Chief make a similar mea culpa.)

I realize a lot of the movie’s (and stage play’s) events were invented, but I don’t care since this is a work of fiction and not a documentary. Frost’s underdeveloped love interest aside, this is one of the year’s very best movies. The fact that it doubles as a surprisingly exciting sporting event is a great bonus.

Frost/Nixon...A