Frost/Nixon is a riveting film, sharper, more intense than the play.
Frost/Nixon (2008)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 206
Fresh: 189
Rotten:17
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Consensus: Frost/Nixon is weighty and eloquent; a cross between a boxing match and a ballet with Oscar worthy performances.
Theatrical Release:23-01-2009
Synopsis:
Oscar®-winning director Ron Howard brings to the screen writer Peter Morgan's (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) electrifying battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy...
Oscar®-winning director Ron Howard brings to the screen writer Peter Morgan's (The Queen, The Last King of Scotland) electrifying battle between Richard Nixon, the disgraced president with a legacy to save, and David Frost, a jet-setting television personality with a name to make, in the untold story of the historic encounter that changed both: Frost/Nixon. Reprising their roles from Morgan's stageplay are Frank Langella, who won a Tony for his portrayal of Nixon, and Michael Sheen, who fully inhabited the part of Frost onstage in London and New York.
For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans.
Likewise, Frost's team harbored doubts about their boss' ability to hold his own. But as cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted. Would Nixon evade questions of his role in one of the nation's greatest disgraces? Or would Frost confound critics and bravely demand accountability from the man who'd built a career out of stonewalling? Over the course of their encounter, each man would reveal his own insecurities, ego and reserves of dignity -- ultimately setting aside posturing in a stunning display of unvarnished truth.
Frost/Nixon not only re-creates the on-air interview, but the weeks of around-the-world, behind-the-scenes maneuvering between the two men and their camps as negotiations were struck, deals were made and secrets revealed...all leading to the moment when they would sit facing one another in the court of public opinion.
Frost/Nixon is a collaboration between Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Films, with Academy Award® winners Brian Grazer and Ron Howard joining Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner as producers. Joining Langella and Sheen as the colorful real-life personalities who provide the men counsel is a formidable roster of actors including Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell, Toby Jones and Matthew Macfadyen.
--© Universal Pictures
Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones
Starring: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Matthew MacFadyen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell
Director: Ron Howard
Director: Ron Howard
Screenwriter: Peter Morgan
Producer: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Composer: Hans Zimmer
Studio: Universal Pictures
Reviews for Frost/Nixon
Frost/Nixon is a historical fraud, a mind-boggling travesty of the truth. Let me hasten to add, however, that it is without doubt the most gripping, entertaining, dramatically clever and fascinating fraud I’ve ever seen.
Stirring stuff that works thrillingly as drama, and should make Sheen a star, even if it compromises on historical insight.
The outcome isn’t half as conflicted as you might imagine, though it’s hard to argue that Howard brings anything new to Morgan’s play.
Thought Ron Howard was going to stuff it up? Think again - Frost/Nixon's a great advert for stage-to-screen adaptations. And if you'd forgotten the power of the close-up, prepare to be dazzled by dapper Dave and Tricky Dick.
It sounds like an awful night out in the cinema. But you will be amazed. In Frost/Nixon Ron Howard turns this duel between Michael Sheen’s glossy playboy and Frank Langella’s shifty ex-President into a gripping tango of egos.
I found myself disconcerted and underwhelmed by a hugely anticipated movie. It never quite escapes its stage origins, and under a glitzy surface of period stylings doesn't seem to have much to say.
Langella is the reason to see the film, smuggling his lugubrious Tricky Dicky well past the script's limited grasp. It's a superb performance, looming like a spectre over the words and deeds of "misunderestimated" politicians everywhere.
Most surprising of all, you may even feel a twinge of sympathy. Whether or not Nixon deserves it, this drama definitely deserves a look.
This superb film shows, his conversations with Richard Nixon were far more illuminating than his recent banter with Lloyd Grossman.
The two-hour plus running time zooms by as the so-called "thinking man's Rocky" plays like an intellectual boxing match with Nixon effortlessly dodging Frost's hesitant jabs and the young challenger looking like he won't last the distance.
Slickly done and easy to watch, but not quite the commentary on modern politics it could/should have been. An historic moment becomes a film that’s more pop than culture.
It’s all about the two men on camera, the showman and the politician: superbly rendered exemplars, respectively, of the lengths and the depths to which men will go to be liked.
An absolutely brilliant film from director Ron Howard – a film you should make every effort to see.
It manages to turn the process behind a talk show into a riveting thriller, even though most of us already think we know the outcome.
Frost/Nixon is absorbing and watchable but, like the earlier film, still feels like a TV movie with delusions of grandeur.
Say hello, good evening and welcome to one of the greatest political movies ever.
Director Ron Howard, less an artist of film like Van Sant, more a resourceful pro, lays his cloak down for the miraculous script and makes sure everyone can walk with dry feet towards the awards ceremonies.
It may climax like a Rocky film, but doesn’t end like one. There are more words to be said, and you’re glad for every one.
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