MOVIE REVIEW - Frost/Nixon

With the Oscar nominations now official, it's time to take at good look at some of the pictures up for some awards this year. Frost/Nixon is one of them.

Debuting in December, FN has finally gone in wider release, and it's a shame it didn't get more play early on. FN is a movie of the first order. Directed by Ronnie Howard this is look back to 1977, when then British talk show host David Frost risked everything to stage a series of interview's with former President Richard Nixon who had resigned in disgrace 3 years earlier. FN is the story of the negotiating, and the 4 days of taping the TV interview that both Frost and Nixon thought was the stepping stone to another level in their public lives.

With tremendous skill, both Frost and Nixon's characters in this movie are developed wonderfully, and you feel at the movies end you've really learned who these guys were, and what made them tick. The performances by Micheal Sheen (Frost) and Frank Langella (Nixon) are absolutely stellar. Langella in particular as Nixon, invokes both rage and sympathy to the viewer. The sheer amount of dialogue is amazing, and delivered with incredible passion deep within the character. One of the years best performances, if not THE best.

Both characters are incredibly complex individuals, who were pulling the same chain in different directions and for different reasons. FN takes on some meaty issues in the Nixon White House, with the focus squarely on Vietnam, and Watergate. Frost attempting the impossible, getting Nixon to admit wrongdoing, and Nixon attempting to propel himself back into the limelight by crushing Frost on TV. Throw in a great supporting cast of Oliver Platt, and Sam Rockwell, and Frost/Nixon turns into into one of the years best dramas.

Frost/Nixon is a powerful movie, that has the innate ability to transport you back in time to 1977. Some movies do this so well, you think when you come out of the theater it's going to be 1977. I remember the 1997 Oscar nominated movie L.A. Confidential set in 1953. I felt the same way This movie is a learning tool of the era. the event, and the men. It is one of Ronnie Howard's best movies, and that's saying something. He has been one of the best film makers of this or any generation.

Frost/Nixon. Just fantastic. Oscar Worthy!