Quick Review: Frost/Nixon
Jul. 3rd, 2012 08:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalSummary; 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.
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.
