Director: Ron Howard
Year Released: 2008
Rating: 2.0
Pssst: This is really a movie about George W. Bush. TV "personality" David Frost (Michael Sheen) - clad in 'progressive' Italian-made attire (sharp white collars everywhere! Windsor knots!) - arranges a sit-down interview with disgraced U.S. President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) where Literal David tries to get Literal Goliath to fess-up about the Watergate debacle. The "in-training" scenes - where Frost and his think-tank do research and get questions together - lack punch (Howard resorting to faux-documentary style is an aesthetic blunder) and the 'meeting of the minds' segments are rapidly cut through (Howard doesn't dare just let the two talk for more than a few quick minutes) until it arrives at its single 'significant' moment when Nixon admits that when the President does something illegal it magically becomes legal (cough cough Iraq Invasion). I was afraid the Langella performance would be a caricature but it's surprisingly respectful, and reminds the audience that Nixon was actually a skilled debater; Sheen's Frost is one giant plastic grin. Pssst again: The loafers represent Change.
