Quick Review: Frost/Nixon

Summary; Seeking to prove himself as serious interviewer, David Frost (Michael Sheen) gets the ultimate 'gotcha' interview opportunity, four inwith disgraced former President Richard Nixon (Frank Langella). Frost's team is out to get Nixon to finally admit culpability for the Watergate scandal, while Nixon seeks to repair his reputation and perhaps return to Washington politics.

Review: To be honest, I didn't actually finish watching this movie, stopping just before the first interview. For one thing, the setup to have Frost prove himself to the world is BS. He was already a noted serious interviewer before he managed to land Nixon, so there was actually no drama there, which Ron Howard readily admits in the making of video.

Another thing he notes is that no one every applauded a movie for the set design, which unfortunately takes center stage. This movie is painfully set in the seventies, from the swinging sky lounge aboard a transatlantic 747 flight, to Frost's horrible hair and mod suits (and those teeth), which was distracting as hell.

Finally, I really didn't buy Langella as Nixon. Physically his face has none of Nixon's hangdog jowliness (though admittedly that would take more prosthetic makeup than a Star Wars alien) and he sounds nothing like him either. The one thing he does get down pat is Nixon as a man extremely uncomfortable in his own skin, walking slightly hunched over and cracking jokes that fall utterly flat, even in front of his friends.

Not recommended, though if I ever catch the stage play I might have a more favorable opinion.

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Forty Days of Flash Fic: Day Fourteen

Continuing from yesterday.

* * *

Time stretched to eternity as he leaped over the edge of the cliff, falling through the air to slam into the water of the river, icy cold from mountain runoff. The shock of landing made him blow his breath out, and he came to the surface choking and spitting up water. Turning in the fast moving current, he saw a pair of machines slide and fall into the water behind him, sparking and shorting out as they landed and sank, still crying out, begging for him to make for the riverbank.

The remainder turned and began running along the edge of the cliff, while the helicopters dipped down into the cut, following his path, unable to come down close enough in the confined space to make a grab for him. He turned away, trying to get his arms and legs pumping to swim with the current, even as his teeth began to chatter and the biting cold stole feeling from his feet and hands.

"Sir!" the helicopter's loudspeakers called. "Swim for the bank! Help is coming! Swim for the bank! There are rapids ahead!"

Up ahead, he could see the river turn into a mass of white foam as he headed for the rocks. Barely a moment later he was in among them, hot pain searing his shoulder and leg as he struck the boulders, bouncing through them, carried by the current for nearly a half minute until he was clear, gasping for breath as the river widened and slowed. His shoulder was broken, he was sure, maybe his leg as well. He could feel the water clutching at his clothes as he began to sink, no longer shivering as hypothermia began to set in.

Then strong arms were wrapping themselves around his chest, pulling his head out of the water, kicking towards the bank. It was an ottermorph, a machine with a humanoid shape, covered in sleek dark brown fur with small, mobile ears atop a narrow head with a black nose.

Of course some of them would be able to swim, he thought with dread. They were lifeguards too.

A helicopter landed nearby on the wide gravel and sand bank. More machines emerged from it, covered in fur to make them comforting and friendly, rather than conquerors. These wore paramedic jackets and picked him up with the greatest of care from the otter's webbed hands, laying him on a back brace as they cut away his soaking clothing, to cover him in a silver blanket with heat packs at his chest, feet and hands, strapping him down for his safety. Always for his safety.

"Don't worry, sir," one the rescuers said, its face formed into that of a fox, tail wagging in pleasure as it came to his aid, as it was designed to. "We have you now. You're all right. We will keep you safe. We promise."

As they secured him to the helicopter's stretcher, he began to weep.