by Jenny Jones

Since the release of “Night Shift” in 1982 Ron Howard has continued to bless us with one enjoyable film after another. “Splash”, “Cocoon”, “Ransom”, “Apollo 13″ and now “Frost/Nixon”. Based on the play by Peter Morgan, this Hollywood rendition of the historic interviews between British TV performer David Frost and former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon was a delightfully entertaining surprise.
If there is any hesitation to see this movie because of the boring/political subject matter let me assure you that this is not even an issue. This cast of extremely gifted actors makes the film focus more on the intense emotion and drama surrounding this historic event then on the details of the interview itself. What the characters are saying becomes secondary to how they are saying it, and this group of talented men says it with passion and conviction.

Frank Langella is brilliant as President Nixon. He makes him such an intriguing character and I found myself hanging on his every word eager to see what he would say next. The empathy that Langella made me feel for this man that I never knew or cared about was shocking. To portray a man with so much power as being so utterly sad and lonely made me feel a whole new respect for the actor as well as for the man he was representing. Equally impressive was Michael Sheen’s depiction of TV host David Frost. With his every facial expression you could not only see, but feel his character’s pain and joy. And let’s not forget Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt (who is always fabulous) and Sam Rockwell. All three may have played minor roles in this film but this did not make them any less memorable ones. It is so refreshing to see a movie with deep character development, an interesting plot and exceptional attention to detail. Even the musical score provided by Hans Zimmer (who can never do wrong) was entirely captivating and heightened the feelings of awkwardness and suspense throughout the movie.

Yes, I would say Ron Howard has created yet another success with “Frost/Nixon”. He took 12 hours of subject matter that would otherwise have been slow-moving, complicated and boring and turned it into a short and sweet, witty, easy to follow, entertaining reflection on an important part of American history.

7.5 / 10

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