It isn’t exactly the kind of glowing review you’d want if your film is at the top of the list where Oscar handicaps are concerned which, I’ll admit, isn’t saying much. True that the subject matter to head straight for the heart of the Academy demo, it’s probably going to need a bit more than Todd McCarthy seems prepared to give it:
Although it all pays off in a potent and revelatory final act rife with insights into the psychology and calculations of power players, the initial stretch is rather dry and prosaic. Perhaps needlessly adopting a cinematic equivalent of the play’s direct-to-audience address, Howard “interviews” several of the characters, witness-style, about the events, which only serves to make the film feel somewhat choppy, half like a documentary at first. Approach also imposes an overly predictable editing style on the whole film, one in which the cuts come precisely on the expected beats, when a fleet, syncopated rhythm would have moved the exposition along with more flair. It might even be that the film could have done without the talking heads altogether.
But then there’s this:
The only slightly disconcerting aspect of Sheen’s turn is his appearance; with his longish, brushed-back hair, sideburns, arched eyebrows and occasionally pursed lips, he calls to mind Jack Nicholson in “The Shining.” For her part, as coiffed here, [Rebecca] Hall looks quite like Carly Simon.
Still, he likes Michael Sheen and of course Frank Langella:
The interview excerpts are obviously the real thing, and have been staged with great attention to how they actually looked. Where the script really shines is in the incidental backstage conversation, especially how Nixon smalltalks Frost and catches him off-guard with remarks about the host’s presumed sex life and habits. These private exchanges culminate in the work’s most compelling sequence, in which an inebriated Nixon, prior to the final interview, phones Frost with a late-night ramble stressing their perceived similarities as fellows from modest circumstances looked down upon by “the snobs.” “We still feel like the little man. The loser they told us we were,” the one-time commander-in-chief insinuates, just as he promises that the final session will be “no holds barred.”
By these final scenes, Langella has all but disappeared so as to deliver Nixon himself, leading to a melancholy ending defined, as predicted, by the triumph of one man and the virtual vanquishing of the other.
Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt gives a similarly respectful but not enthusiastic review:
Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, who originated the roles onstage, effectively play Frost and Nixon without trying terribly hard to imitate either. Sheen doesn’t bother to exaggerate Frost’s on-camera tics and vocal inflections. Rather he plays breezy desperation, a performer who is smooth on the surface yet roiling inside, desperate to climb back into showbiz heaven through this interview. Langella permits prosthetic makeup to get the Nixon jowls and gives his voice a Nixonian tenor, but otherwise his is a study in power lost and utter loneliness.
Also, why is the film being reviewed now and released in December? Kind of weird, that.
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It’s just opened the London Film Festival, so certain critics may have seen it there.
Here’s another review, from British film magazine Empire, which compiled that god-awful Best 500 films list posted here a few days a go, but which I subscribe to so it really aint that bad!
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?FID=135026
The oddest thing about that review is that Langella doesn’t receive the expected praise…
Just watched it.
Not much cop. All kinds of problems I’m afraid. The denouement is nowhere near as dramatic as Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men”, which had a similar theme of trying to get a confession.
In that film, the confession and hence the denouement come from the lawyers smartly playing on the internal momentum of Colonel Jessop’s character. Here it just seems like the sad breakdown of an exhausted man.
The scene in the plane where Frost chats up the girl seemed like something out of Austin Powers, and there’s never any development of their relationship.
The talking heads bits felt so fake, basically because the characters, especially Kevin Bacon, were showing great emotion and charge when discussing things that happened even when they obviously knew, with hindsight, how it would end. Those bits felt especially amateurish o me.
The university guy writing the book on Nixon gets one moment when he’s introduced, and then no development as it goes on. The other guys on Frost’s team generate no interest at all.
I’m afraid there’s just not enough tension in the plot or development of the characters to make this exciting viewing.
The lukewarm reviews do not surprise me. The natural assumption that it would be a major player in the oscars always did.
It just premiered at the London Film Festival, so of course people are going to review it.
It’s not Best Picture material — it’s a pretty dry, cold piece of work. Some will respect the film, but I can’t see many voters loving it passionately enough to put it at the top of their ballots. Maybe a Best Actor nod for Langella, maybe a nod for Morgan (though he doesn’t deserve one), and that’s it, in my opinion.
Ron Howard directed the film so I didn’t expect it to be great. He was the wrong person to handle this material.
OK. I think it’s out, just based on this info we have here. Out for Best Picture I mean, just as “W.” is out for similar luke warm reviews. I for one am not UNhappy about that, since I absolutely loathe “A Beautiful Mind.” The real tragedy of the day– and I haven’t really looked it to it yet, admittedly– is that “The Road” may be getting pushed back? The Best Picture race is starting to look slimmer and slimmer. What if “Australia” isn’t “Oscar material”, maybe… “WALL•E”?
I should probably wait to read these til I see this film at LFF on Sat, but I couldn’t help myself. I’m not a fan of Howard, but I’m disappointed there isn’t more praise for the principal actors so far
One less BP contender in the way of THE DARK KNIGHT and WALL-E both deservingly making the final cut. Like others, not surprised to hear this, but I am a little that no one seemed blown away by Langella.
Yep, the Ron Howard as director is really what seemed to reduce this one’s chances as success, but it’s resounding reception on Broadway and its multiple Tony Award noms seemed to place it in commanding position as the year winds down.
The above reviews suggest otherwise.
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Kind of ironic considering Nixon’s own fall from grace
Another over-rated movie….this year’s CWW.
Can everybody just stop thinking that Howard is a good director…much less a great one? Throw your Oscar to that great silverscreen up in the sky to the great Robert Altman will you Opie?!
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