To me, this movie is perfection.

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

If you're going to this movie thinking you are just going to see another movie about Watergate, you will have to quickly adjust your thinking. I know, because that is what happened to me. This is a riveting and gut- wrenching movie about two men locked in a personal battle to use each other in order to change their public images. Neither is totally prepared for the contest that will be played out on the world TV stage. To be sure, this is a "no holds barred" showdown. But both Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) and David Frost (Michael Sheen who played Tony Blair in The Queen (2006) underestimate each other's public skills. To Nixon, David Frost is seen as just a second-rate British talk show host. To David Frost, the Nixon interviews are his ticket to do something that no other TV talk show host or reporter had managed to do: to get Nixon on record admitting something about himself that he had not heretofore publicly done. Frost, pushed by his fellow producers, wants Nixon to publicly take responsibility for the Watergate cover-up and for his own personal complicity in the final aspects of the Viet Nam War. As you watch this movie, you find yourself, at first, empathizing with David Frost who is in something big--but WAY over his head. Later, as you see the preparation for the interviews (on both sides), you feel empathy—yes, empathy--for Richard Nixon!! Both Oliver Stone, in Nixon (1995), and Ron Howard, in this movie, seem to have taped Richard Nixon as a figure of the high tragedy akin to a figure from a Greek tragedy or one of the "big four tragedies" of Shakespeare: Hamlet, Macbeth, Lear, and Othello. In each of these Shakespearian tragedies, the title character has an innate tragic flaw in their character that brings them down from great and powerful heights. While it may have been JEALOUSY with Othello or LUST FOR POWER with Macbeth, with Nixon it seems to always be the need for REVENGE on his enemies (real or imagined): those people that look down on him as socially or intellectually unworthy to hold power. With this movie, Ron Howard has expertly introduced us to a new type of "courtroom drama." But, this "courtroom" takes the form of a series of TV interviews. The parties present their own arguments, and we are the jury. Howard effectively uses extreme close up shots to tighten the space and heighten the interpersonal drama. With his skill, Howard draws us into the drama and barely gives time to blink. Both my wife and I left the movie emotionally drained but dramatically fulfilled.

the tension is its great virtue. the tension of dialogue and the tension of acting. the memories of the viewer about Nixon administration and its end and the remarkable way for become the American president of Frank Langella. it is a story about truth. and about a man looking to save his thoughts more than his public image. a duel who, more important than the revelation about facts from the backstage represents the meet from two admirable actors who recreate not only a battle but discover the force, the tools, the strategies and the patience, the challenges and the mix between two different visions about duty, errors, fundamental decisions. and about the other. a slice of history. or a moral lesson. Frost/Nixon is both.and, maybe more important, one of films who redefine the role of cinema.

Frost / Nixon (2008): Dir: Ron Howard / Cast: Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Kevin Bacon, Sam Rockwell, Oliver Platt: Another triumph by director Ron Howard whose range of films go from Apollo 13 to The Paper. Here he presents a film that examines the relationship between ex-President Richard Nixon and talk show host David Frost. It examines how the series of interviews saved Frost's career and all but exposed Nixon's Watergate ordeal. Frank Langella does a superb impression of Nixon who is seen here as someone continuing on with life while still yearning to be heard and respected. Michael Sheen shines as Frost who not only accepts the opportunity to revamp his career, he also gains an in depth relationship with an ex- President that has been the subject of more speculation and curiosity than most. Is the film seen as a confession, or just a reminder that he is merely human? Kevin Bacon appears as one of Nixon's advisers, and Sam Rockwell appears as part of Frost's research team who hates Nixon and feels that the interviews should be the trial he never received. This is a great film with insight for the scholars and the curios alike, and succeeds in being one of the best films of the year. For another great film on the subject I recommend strongly All the President's Men, otherwise this is a provocative film gives insight into a failed Presidency. Score: 10 / 10

Brilliant. Ron Howard crafts the David Frost interview of Richard Nixon into a sporting event, with punch and counter-punch, mind games, agony and ecstasy. A very well-told story, with examinations of both protagonists characters, mindsets and motives.Howard keeps the movie going, never getting mired in over-sentimentality or minor details. At no point does the plot drift.The cast is perfect for their roles: Frank Langella as Richard Nixon, Michael Sheen as David Frost, Kevin Bacon as Nixon's Chief-of-Staff Jack Brennan, Sam Rockwell as James Reston jr and Oliver Platt as Bob Zelnick. All deliver outstanding performances.A fascinating expose of one of the more notorious incidents in American history, and the interview that made a TV legend.