It’s handy that a slew of Oscar contenders invariably come
out around the holidays—and handier still that these films
generally lend themselves to just the sort of family bonding the
holidays require. Frost/Nixon is tailor-made for viewing with
Dad or Grandpa, who will no doubt appreciate Ron Howard’s cinematic
adaptation of Peter Morgan’s stage play.
As with many dramatizations of events whose outcome is known,
Frost/Nixon‘s version of the 1977 televised interviews between
Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) and David Frost (Michael Sheen) is
interesting more for its window on a bygone era than for any inherent
dramatic conflict. This didn’t stop playwright Morgan from formulating
the narrative as a high-stakes battle, a titanic clash between ousted
President Richard Nixon, determined to restore the legacy of his
presidency after Watergate, and British talk show host David Frost, who
is equally determined to extract an on-air confession from Nixon.
Howard’s adaptation is grounded in Frank Langella’s Nixon. Langella
endows Nixon with an awkward charm that’s constantly undercut by a
coarse, striving vulgarity, in a performance that delicately but
insistently raises the question: How much pity can one feel for a man
who ultimately betrayed the public’s trust?
It’s a compelling theme, more so than the film’s “Will he talk or
won’t he?” plot mechanism. Frost/Nixon is ultimately most
successful in its humanization of Nixon, fleshing out the “I am not a
crook” caricature that, for many of us, is our only understanding of
our 37th president. It’s important, though, not to mistake fiction for
fact: Playwright Morgan has stated that he took liberties with the
historical record in order to create a compelling narrative. As a
historical fiction, then, Frost/Nixon contributes much to an
empathetic understanding of history, if not to a factual one.