I've been curious about this one since the first trailers leaked a while back (HERE), although I'm a perennial Ron Howards doubter so I couldn't get too excited (contrary to Talkbacker opinion,. I really don't hate everything).
But from what I'm hearing so far? Sounds like Ron pulled this one off nicely.
Filmcoyote sent in some thoughts on the film after a London screening (which we appreciate), and here they are:
Been a while since i sent anything in (possibly Die Hard 4!) but i got a chance to see an awards screening of Frost/Nixon last night in London ahead of the film's premiere at the head of the London Film Festival tonight (Wednesday Oct 15) so thought I'd send my thoughts. If you use it I remain the Filmcoyote at your service:
It is a testament to Peter Morgan’s humility and skill as a writer and Ron Howard’s ability to take a based on real events story to which the outcome is widely known and create a compelling “what will happen” drama (as he did with Apollo 13) that Frost/Nixon succeeds as a film. It was a pleasant surprise to see a film based on a play that neither felt trapped in staginess nor weakly expanded with just the stage dialogue delivered exactly but in a variety of outdoor locales.
I have to give Peter Morgan a lot of credit here. I saw the play with Frank Langella and Michael Sheen when it played at the Gielgud Theatre in London and have wondered throughout the production of Frost/Nixon the film how they would escape its theatricality. Many recent films from plays like Proof, The Big Kahuna, Closer, The Shape Of Things, Chicago , The Producers, have failed to throw off the shackles of stage feel. Even Lions For Lambs, which was not a play but was reputedly originally developed to be, falls head first into this trap. Not that these were all bad films, many of them, served as a good way to see the play if you hadn’t had the chance, but they weren’t necessarily compelling films in their own right. What is so impressive about Morgan’s work here is that in adapting his own play he has not been precious, he has not tried to enforce his already successful stageplay onto a film director – he has wholly reworked it from beginning to end and yet retained all the gravity and drama that the play elicited. If you saw the play everything key is here and yet you can feel the difference – the pacing is changed, the power achieved in different ways.
For this Howard also deserves credit. To have filmed the play as it was would have been disastrous on film – one long two-hander scene after another, dueling narrators. And given the reverence the play has enjoyed a less experienced director could have fallen into this trap or that of simply changing the settings, but Howard knows when we need quick cuts, when a long drawn out piece that worked on stage needs to be reduced to a couple of lines and a post-scene reaction, and when he needs to hold with a scene and let it play between the two leads. This happens in several impressive moments in the latter half of the film, most notably the final interview and the phone call scene.
For some this might constitute the films biggest flaw however. While Morgan and Howard have been wholly successful in leaving a stage behind them and making a film experience without losing the essence of what made the play so compelling they can’t escape the fact that in the final stages of the film it is the head-to-head scenes of Frost and Nixon that are the meat and they must stay with them more. This is necessary, but it sadly means that the supporting players, so well established and broadened out to expand the scope in the first half, fall be the wayside. A superb Toby Jones as Irving ‘Swifty’ Lazar, Matthew Macfadyen as John Birt and always reliable Oliver Platt as Bob Zelnick all but disappear and only Kevin Bacon and Sam Rockwell play any significant role beyond the two leads in the final stages. This is a shame. It may best serve the story creating the sense of claustrophobia necessary to keep you gripped but it does feel like a film of two halves because of it and it noticeable.
Langella and Sheen are superb, as they were on stage, and Langella will take a lot of beating for the Oscar this year, he should certainly give Pitt, Rourke and (possibly?) Jackman a run for their money. There are many moments here when I was so involved I forgot I wasn’t watching the real Nixon. It’s not that he looks that like Nixon but he is so real you believe it completely and have to remind yourself you’re watching an actor. This is made easier when the camera cuts back to Sheen and you instantly remember you’re watching a film. This is no fault of Sheen’s, he is excellent as Frost, unfortunately having played Tony Blair twice and so convincingly I couldn’t help but see Blair in every smile.
Platt is reliably Platt, stealing many of the best lines, but only really brings Platt to the table. Bacon is also his typically understated solid presence doing a lot with little but remaining strong support rather than grabbing your notice – as a great supporting player should do, though it rarely gets them the credit they deserve. Toby Jones is fantastic in a small role – instantly memorable; and Rebecca Hall builds on a series of strong performances working with Chris Nolan, Woody Allen etc. But in the supporting cast it is Rockwell that stands out. Sure, he has the most to do but he is completely in this role, he manages to sink into the role which is something Rockwell rarely does. He matches the skill he showed in Lawn Dogs and Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind here and it is great to see him back at his best. Depending on where Universal push Sheen come awards time (Actor as he deserves of Supporting where he might have more chance) Rockwell could well figure in the Supporting category.
It seems early to be talking awards season but it is well up and running now having had Venice and Toronto already and in London the LFF certainly marks a real start to proceedings. Whatever Benjamin Button, The Reader, Australia etc may have in store I’m sure Frost/Nixon, and especially Langella, will loom large when the nominations start rolling around. I thoroughly recommend this film.
Only one mystery remains – how can Howard make such a compelling cinematic film out of a stage play based on a true event for which the outcome if widely known but so utterly fail to make a compelling film out of a popcorn thriller based on a beach-read page-turner? Still, good to have the good Ron back.
