Review: FROST/NIXON / Ron Howard (2008)
December 3rd, 2008 by Scott Marks
Nixon/Frost (2008)
Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Peter Morgan from his play
Starring: Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Patty McCormack and Clint Howard
Running Time: 122 min.
Photographed by Salvatore Totino in 
Rating: 
If nothing else, Frost/Nixon answers one burning question: Whatever became of Patty McCormack, the pig-tailed demon in The Bad Seed. She’s all grow’d up now and playing Pat Nixon in Ron Howard’s made-for-TV blow-up of the sensational 1977 video dismantling of America’s 37th president.
In the closing minutes of Frost/Nixon, James Reston, Jr. (Sam Rockwell) admits to underestimating what it was that made the Nixon/Frost confrontation such a smashing success: the reductive power of the close-up. If I were Ron Howard, I wouldn’t end the picture by drawing attention to what I’d been doing for the past 115 minutes.
Howard wasn’t the first director to have his fingerprints on this project. Mike Nichols, George Clooney, Sam Mendes, Bennett Miller and even Marty were all in the running. (Everybody’s first choice on every film is Him. I bet Marty even got an offer to direct New York Minute.) Based on a play that was based on a TV interview, Ron Howard was the natural choice. (All kidding aside, Mike Nichols could have done wonders with this script.)
Perhaps the British accent fooled me growing up, but I don’t remember David Frost being this much of a lightweight. (Peter Cook dubbed Frost “the bubonic plagiarist.”) According to Howard’s vision of the events surrounding the historic interviews, David Frost comes off as an unprepared, unengaged, money mad pleasure seeker. Instead of spending the night before the interview cramming for the defining moment of his career, Frost is at the Cineramadome attending the premier of The Slipper and the Rose, a film he executive produced. He was still searching for sponsors days after the interviews began filming.
According to the film, the trio of media heavyweights Frost surrounded himself with were so formidable, the talk show host felt no need to brush up on his Nixon. Veteran reporter Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) was Frost’s strategist and executive editor of the interviews. John Birt (Matthey Macfadyen) produced the show and James Reston, Jr., the acerbic Nixon-hating author and lecturer, was hired as Frost’s writer. Reston’s diatribe against Nixon is pitched to a modern audience fed up with the current commander in chief.
Frost had a reputation as a womanizer, but the seemingly fictitious Caroline Cushing character, played by the comely Rebecca Hall, appears to be a composite created by the filmmakers for purposes of eye candy. Ms. Hall quietly stole the show in Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona. Under Howard’s lazy eye she does little more than change and model the Nino’s form fitting, authentic to the period costumes.
The leads recreate roles they originated on the stage and both performances must have played better from a distance. Up close Michael Sheen looks more Pat Sajack than David Frost and Frank Langella is flat out miscast. Not to say that the acting is bad. On the contrary, while their performances are accomplished and were acclaimed, they still seem pitched for the stage and transcribed verbatim by Mr. Howard’s movie camera.
Staged like a boxing match, Nixon/Frost should probably be graded round by round. For those who missed the obvious, the dialog is riddled with boxing metaphors. Morgan’s script and structure are right, but Howard’s pacing of the individual scenes is all off. He nails a tripod to the floor to film an airplane sequence while going hand held in a hotel room. There are quick rack focus shots intended to indicate nervousness. When Nixon begins to lose it, Howard cuts to a stock low angle shot. Furthermore, there should be a law punishable by crucifixion that any screenwriter or director in any medium not be allowed to have a character turn on a television set or radio at the precise moment in time when a crucial plot point germane to the scene just happens to be being broadcast. And while I’m at it, Film Tech 101 students will goof on Ron’s match cut piano keys butted together as a jump cut transition.
The actual interviews drew more out of both men than anything Howard is capable of presenting. It’s clear that Frost aspired to be an opinion-molder rather than a groovy television personality. According to the Frost/Nixon timeline, our host only put in a couple day’s worth of effort and were it not for his committed staff, this interview would have been something more along the lines of Merv than Cavett. Were I Sir David Frost (he drew a “Thank You,” not a “Consultant” credit), this portrait would appear insulting. Maybe he did learn something from Dick Nixon after all. What is 600,000 in adjusted dollars today?
“Frost/Nixon” trailer
Tags: david frost, Film Review, frank langella, frost nixon, frost/nixon, frost/nixon review, michael sheen, Movie Review, Richard Nixon, Ron Howard, Trailer, VideoShare: 
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9 Responses to “Review: FROST/NIXON / Ron Howard (2008)”
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Damn, and I was looking forward to this!
*tongue in cheek, wondering what good films Ron Howard ever directed.
“Splash.”
Yes. And “Grand Theft Auto”.
“Ron Howard pops the clutch and tells the world to Eat My Dust!!!”
Okay, okay.
Now that I think about it, “Cinderella Man” was somewhat heartwarming.
And “Splash” did introduce us to Darryl Hannah’s rear.
I’m using a crowbar to extract the tongue out of my cheek now.
I remember liking “Night Shift,” but don’t hold me to it. I think I was 16 when I saw it! I tended to like most movies back then. Ah, for a bit of that innocence in today’s crappy cinematic climate.
Joel, I like that movie too, and I was 11 or 12 when it came out. I think the reason I liked “Night Shift” at that age was because it had boobies. Opie Cunningham directed boobies. Huh-huh-huh!
My favorite Ron Howard film: Apollo 13
My least favorite Ron Howard film: Dr. Seuss’ “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”
My favorite Ron Howard film by far was when he got Andy Griffith and The Fonz to speak out for Obama.
Bwahahaha… I’m baaaack…
FACT IS —having made BILLIONS upon BILLIONS these past decades outsourcing labor, and unflinchingly catering to the dumb-down, franchise-slum denial needs of history’s
—-MOST—- awesomely genocidal regime
—ACROSS the Pacific –Hollywood continues
to deal moral alibis -for ITSELF! -in the form
of ad nauseum PC WWII retreads —and seen-to-death recycling of Boomer era PC ‘concerns’.
IF you REALLY wanted to get Nixon on something
–you might have tried his opening the door
to TOTAL SELLOUT to Red China -ESP. on this,
the once again ‘mysteriously overlooked’
60th Anniversary of the epic, urgently relevant
—indeed, STILL unfolding –KOREAN WAR!
—-pass it on!