Saturday, January 3, 2009

FROST / NIXON

“FROST / NIXON” (Frank Langella & Michael Sheen)

First off, anyone who thinks any of the supporting actors in this film deserves to be nominated for an Academy Award needs to lay off the crack pipe. NO ONE in any of the supporting roles stood out – even perennial favorite of mine, Oliver Platt, who did a nice turn as one of the American producers that jumped on board the project, didn’t have a big enough role, or do any ‘stretching’ as an actor to fulfill what was required of him. I mention this because I have heard & seen that Kevin Bacon should be in the running for Best Supporting Actor & this is a sham. Bacon has been better in probably a dozen other films – here, he is about as cookie cutter as they come – they may as well offer Clint Howard up for Oscar consideration, & all he had to do was say “Okay, David... in 4, 3, 2 &...”
Unfortunately this is going to be one of those reviews where I stick my slanted nose in where it doesn’t belong – but what the hey, it’s my movie review blog & I can make my own rules. I had low expectations for this film & a very specific fear that Ron Howard, for whatever reason, decided to make this movie to ‘humanize’ Richard M. Nixon. The fear was realized, but low expectations didn’t hold up once the film concluded. For the better part of ‘Frost/Nixon’ I was sufficiently bored; I did not like the way the story was being told – in a half documentary/half re-creation of events style. The whole idea that Watergate was the ‘crime of the century’ was laughable – it was blown out of proportion by the media but it barely constituted being called a ‘crime’. I think everyone who knows someone that has been murdered resents a ‘pseudo-burglary’ being called the crime of the century. But getting past all that, ‘Frost/Nixon’ did gather enough momentum to make the ‘final interview’ something to anticipate. From the previews my thoughts on Frank Langella’s take on Nixon were of a mocking nature (He sounds like he’s doing a bad Rich Little impersonation, I wrote to a friend) But after viewing the performance in its entirety, I would begrudgingly say Langella should at least be considered for an Oscar nod. I was actually more impressed with Michael Sheen’s David Frost – the only thing that bothered me about his performance was as ‘Interviewer’ Frost, Sheen’s voice was uncanny – you’d swear it was David Frost speaking – but as ‘behind the scenes’ Frost he was just another twit with an English accent. Meaning Sheen could nail the voice he heard from the interview tapes, but without guidance, he wasn’t so ‘dead on target’. Still, two very fine performances & really the only reason to see this film at all. Unless you’re a big fan of Tricky Dick’s & you want to see him exonerated from all the bad press & un-humanitarian decisions he made while in office, you’ll probably feel the same way I did as the screen faded on ‘poor’ Richard as he stood alone looking forlornly out at the vast Pacific – Why would they want us to feel sympathy for this man? What was the point of this film?
When they use the term ‘based’ on a true story, & especially when they use one with one of the most well-known figures in American history, they allow themselves the luxury of making up phone calls that never happened to build up the drama. Not to mention the fact that the fictionalized phone call just piled on more sympathetic feelings toward ‘poor’ Richard.
I always found it amusing that it took something as meaningless as ‘Watergate’ to bring Nixon down when he should have been raked over the coals for so many other atrocities; yet in this film, he even comes across as having a reasonable & ‘humane’ reason for some of those. Nixon is shown as being a bright, articulate, humorous family man... So why would anyone want to bring him to his knees & force him to apologize to the American people? That’s the driving force behind the reason for conducting these interviews & yet, the way Ron Howard presents him, it feels as though Richard Milhous Nixon should be ‘accepting’ the apologies from an ungrateful public & media.
I used to despise Dick because he tried to have my idol, John Lennon, deported. Now, I wished he had succeeded because then John would not have been an easy target on the streets of New York in 1980... Yes, why should we glorify a man that failed in having an illegal drug using Beatle kicked out of the country?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I really liked this film. I thought it was well written screenplay and solid acting across the board, of course it's Langella's movie though. He's a lock for a Oscar nod.
I think it will get several Oscar nominations. Besides Frank, I know it will get a Screenplay nod. Other close possibles are picture, director, editing and score.
A lot of people have the film i their top 5 that's all I'm saying.

Anonymous said...

Not meaning to sound crass, but I don't really care what 'a lot of people' think. Why don't these people have a problem with Nixon being perceived as a man to be pitied? Characterized as an extremely intelligent 'charismatic' person. Not saying he wasn't smart, but the film shows him as being extremely quick on his feet with a humorous quip or a precise, well thought out answer to a difficult question he wasn't expecting to be asked. & anyone that thinks Michael Sheen didn't hold his own with Langella either doesn't remember the 60's & early 70's very well, or as you like to tell me - 'Doesn't know good acting when they see it'. It's about real people from 'Baby-Boomers' youthful era - it will probably get a nomination just the same as 'Good Night & Good Luck' did - Another good film, but not worthy of an 'Oscar nod'. It's a good film, but it won't crack my Top 20 of '08 & I'm one of a lot of people.

Anonymous said...

Hey, that person almost got it right. Or did they ? I forget.

I read someone say and I can't remember where, maybe it was Sasha Stone, they believed Sean Penn will win this weekend's SAG award, Mickey Rourke won the Globe and Frank Langella will win the Oscar.
At least that would ne kind of novelty, where the actor award was spread out. I still think Penn wins The Oscar and SAG though in reality.