Frost/Nixon

There is a certain level of self-deception we engage in when evaluating dramatic performances in films. We do not actually know what it feels like to be chased by dinosaurs. Nor do most of us have any idea as to what it is like to fight in a war. Yet somehow we feel confident in lauding the acting work of “Jurassic Park,” and asserting that Tom Hanks deserved accolades for his role in “Saving Private Ryan.” How is this possible? What do we know of how compelling their portrayal really was?

Simply put, we cheat. Lacking a practical basis for our evaluations, we instead cut an onscreen character down to size, distill what we can relate to, and decide whether it matches our experiences or imaginings. Thus, the actor who comes off as most familiar to us is the most successful. It’s the utter defiance of this convention that makes Frank Langella’s portrayal of Richard Nixon so wholly fascinating, and by extension, makes “Frost/Nixon” a mesmerizing film to behold.

The plot, inspired by true events and adapted for the screen by Peter Morgan from his Tony Award-winning stage play, is encapsulated within its title. “Frost/Nixon” tells the story of David Frost (Michael Sheen), a British comedian, who sets out to interview disgraced ex-President Richard Nixon (Langella). What begins for Frost as a publicity stunt quickly grows into something more—a mission to extract from Nixon the confession he never gave to the American people. “Tricky Dick,” on the other hand, hopes to use this appearance on national television—his first since his resignation—to rehabilitate his reputation.

Squaring off against the experienced television personality, Nixon proves a better showman than his interlocutor. An enigmatic Langella resists caricature; each viewer will leave the theater with a different impression of a man who is at once charismatic, boring, conniving, sympathetic, unflappable, and vulnerable. Langella’s Oscar-caliber work alone is worth the price of admission.

With this film, director Ron Howard rediscovers his ability to take intellectualism and make it palpable and engaging onscreen. This is the vintage Howard of “A Beautiful Mind” and not the pedantic Howard of “The Da Vinci Code.” In his capable hands, the confrontation between Frost and Nixon is choreographed not like an interview but as an almost medieval clash of titans.

Instead of the ominous pounding of armored feet on earth, we witness the purposeful pacing of black shoes on pavement. In place of dark steeds carrying villains, we have the jet-black limousines of the presidential motorcade. The generals in this war of words are researchers for Frost and staffers, headed Kevin Bacon as Jack Brennan, for Nixon.

At the same time, true to its original stage play format, “Frost/Nixon” is a film driven by its acting and directing. At key moments, the soundtrack simply stops, and the performers are left alone before the audience. Langella and Sheen often accomplish with one facial tick what most actors fail to do with their entire bodies. Riveting to behold, “Frost/Nixon” is a wonderful exercise in toned-down storytelling that’s uncharacteristic of ratcheted-up Hollywood. We are reminded in the interview scenes that one does not need the histrionics of digitized monsters or the pyrotechnics of world warfare to enrapture an audience. The greatest drama of all can take place on the stage of the human face.

As Nixon’s antagonist, Frost, Sheen does an admirable, if overshadowed, job. At the film’s start, he plays the television personality to perfection, sporting an ever-present million-dollar smile. By its end, Sheen reveals a Frost transformed from entertainer to thinker, a man who has come to take himself seriously after confronting serious issues.

Sheen and Langella are supported in the film by Matthew Macfadyen as Frost’s straight-man producer John Birt, and by the comedic tag team of Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell, who play Frost’s academic “crack investigators” with relish. The only failure of the film here is Rebecca Hall (last seen actually emoting in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”), whose character, Caroline Cushing, is not only an accessory to Sheen’s playboy persona but to the film as well. One is hard pressed to find any non-expository dialogue escaping her lips—a rare misstep in an otherwise flawless film.

The transition from stage to screen is fraught with pitfalls. A stage play adapted for cinema must expand its scope without losing the intimacy of its original format. Thanks to the expert direction of Ron Howard, and brilliant performances from its cast, “Frost/Nixon” accomplishes this task admirably. The best of cinema is combined with the best of the stage to produce a rare hybrid—an epic battle of human proportions.