Director Ron Howard's Frost/Nixon is widely considered one of the best films of 2008 and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing at the 81st Annual Academy Awards. It lost all of them on Sunday February 22.MadProfessah finally saw the movie on the big screen, at the cheapest movie theater in town, the Regency Academy 6 Theaters in Pasadena a few weeks ago.
Written by Peter Morgan, the Oscar-nominated and Golden Globe-winning author of The Queen, the screenplay is a brilliant depiction of a television interview as a pugilistic verbal battle. The pacing, set-up and unspooling of the film is similar to a boxing movie.
However, in addition to the familiar pacing and visuals of a sporting movie, we also have the insider view of a behind-the-scenes look at how a television show gets made as well as a somewhat voyeuristic perspective on two world-class celebrities: Richard Nixon and David Frost.
Surprisingly, Ron Howard's direction, as showy as one would expect from a previous Best Director winner, is actually a strong point of the film, as is Peter Morgan's very clever adapted screenplay of his own very successful play of the same name. The two combine forces well to depict the theatrical battle of will and dialogue into an engrossing film.
Frank Langella's portrayal of Nixon was widely celebrated but it was the amazing Michael Sheen, who dazzled as a somewhat clueless Tony Blair in Peter Morgan's previous film The Queen who really made an impact on me in the film long after it was over. The film simply does not work without Sheen's performance at the center. Sadly, AMPAS has not seen fit to recognize his previous work, but hopefullly Hollywood casting agents (and big-name directors) will be more discerning in the future.
Running time: 2 hours, 2 minutes. MPAA Rating: R.
IMAGERY: B+.PLOT: A-.
ACTING: A.
IMPACT: B.
OVERALL GRADE: B+.
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