Frost/Nixon dramatizes the behind-the-scenes jockeying that took place during the landmark 1977 television interview between British TV personality David Frost and Nixon. Three years after leaving office, these sessions were the only time Nixon came close to offering the American public anything akin to an apology. Adapted by screenwriter Peter Morgan from his own play and directed by Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon is a bit archly constructed. You get the sense that historical fact has been forcibly molded to fit the pitch: that Nixon was duped by a shallow showman.
Michael Sheen plays Frost, but it’s Frank Langella as Nixon who makes the movie. Langella easily conjures up Nixon’s demeanor of absolute power, even when the disgraced ex-president shuffles around the seaside California ranch to which he’s banished himself. His Nixon is combatively intelligent, fiercely prideful and, above all, deeply injured by what he did to his own presidency.
