Opening with actual 1970s video footage including the U.S. turning over the Watergate tapes, it’s the last few hours of our resigning President, Richard M. Nixon (Frank Langella). On the other side of the globe, British playboy and talk show host, David Frost (Michael Sheen – he was Tony Blair in “The Queen.”) is accustomed to interviewing the Bee Gees. When Nixon decides to sell his interview, agent Swifty Lazar (Toby Jones) convinces him to go with Frost over CBS’s Mike Wallace, because it will be easier, not to mention he’ll come out looking like a rehabilitated human to the American people. Frost hires Bob Zelnick (Oliver Platt) and James Reston Jr. (Sam Rockwell) to dig into the stories behind Viet Nam and Watergate, while Frost finds financers – to back his out-of-pocket $600,000 risk that this interview just cost him. As the movie builds to the climatic one-on-one sit down between the two – beginning March 23, 1977 and lasting four days – one can’t help but wonder how you may have ever thought ‘who would want to see a movie about Nixon being interviewed?’ Instead the film is completely riveting. You’ll hear a pin drop and you’ll see the unraveling of the behind the scenes – how Nixon’s games and wit earned him the nickname “Tricky Dick.” Director Ron Howard portrays Nixon as less than a villain and more of a man we find flawed and tragic; a victim to his own foolish mistakes. Langella gives a performance of a lifetime able to translate from stage (where he won a Tony Award for the same performance) to the big screen. He doesn’t look like Nixon, he doesn’t act like Nixon, and then all of a sudden he does a complete metamorphosis into Nixon and you’re sure it is Nixon. Langella will not only be nominated for an Oscar but will undoubtedly win. But while the movie itself is close to flawless, its biggest challenge will be attracting a young crowd or history lovers. If you liked “Good Night and Good Luck” – and this is way smarter – you’ll love this. Though its R rating will limit younger audiences, too. Four tiaras
