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I have a really hard time watching movies based on historical events I have lived through and with actors playing those people I know. I'm sorry but Frank Langella can do an amazing job acting Nixonish but he's not the guy I saw on TV almost every night back in the day. And that other actor does not look like David Frost who was a physically bigger man back then. In fact, isn't he the same actor who played Tony Blair, the British Prime minister, in The Queen? He looks like the same guy from the movie trailers.
If I remember correctly, people didn't like David Frost in his earlier career and it had nothing to do with Nixon. Is Frost "the hero" in this movie?
Also, Frank Langella was one sexy Dracula back in the seventies. How could that same man be Nixon?
The big problem for me was the plot development. The play has Frost starting out as a likable nebbish rather than the man he was. Really, does the author expect us to think that Frost didn't have a big ego or any temper? In the "making of" segment, Sheen even states that the plot couldn't have Frost coming on strong too soon because of plot development. To which I say RUBBISH. The play was flawed in this way and so was the movie. It flattened the action until the last interview to build on what was basically nothing. Ron Howard and the crew natters on about the story being a verbal boxing match between Frost and Nixon. Crimminy, I've had debates here that were stronger, and debates on usenet that make the so called boxing match in the film seem as weak as two hippos in tutus having a feather fight.
Langella did well, given his own persona. The Nixon character was overdrawn, but the story required it. However, the makeup artist that did Langella's cheek appliances during the actual debate sequences should have been relegated to applying make-up to the dachshund at the end of the film. You could see Langella's eyes and lower eyelids move and have normal moisture, but the cheeks were so obvious, dry, and stiff I thought they were straight out of a Spencer Gifts Halloween store.
I liked it quite a bit.
I enjoyed the suspense of putting the interview together, as well as Langella's portrayal of Nixon.
Not all plays-into-movies work for me, but this one did.
Loved the phone call the night before.
A great movie. It was very slow moving in the beginning, which didn't bother me. Both actors were phenomenal, I thought. Elements of it were very, very sad...what a time that was.
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