Ron Howard
Frost/Nixon

1977. An American living room in the '50s. The fourth part of the interview granted by former President Nixon to the showman and talk show host David Frost is about to begin. The first three sessions have been nothing short of catastrophic for the English host. Nixon annihilated him, to say the least. He manipulated the conversation by digressing into his memories, and the time paid dearly by the interviewer ($600,000 for the four interviews) turned out to be useless. But the topic of this last debate is Watergate, a rather slippery surface for Nixon. Frost, for his part, has not sat idly by and has found information that will be his trump card.

"Frost/Nixon" is simply, as the title suggests, a clash, a battle of oratory: Nixon, who had distanced himself from the world of politics after the fall, sees this as a chance to return to Washington, and on the eve of this final interview, it is very likely that this will happen (two sound engineers who had never voted for him would have elected him after the first three sessions if he had run for president again!). Frost can only lose. He is at the peak of his hosting career in the UK and Australia, but when he sees the audience ratings on Nixon's departure from the White House, he throws himself into this project, which seems until the end to be too big for him: the major American production houses (ABC, NBC, CNN, CBN,...) refuse to support these interviews, deemed unprofitable since Frost has never done anything like this. David thus finds himself gambling everything: his career, which would be in the dirt in case of defeat, and his small fortune, spent to have the Nixon interview. Aware of not being very prepared in the field, Frost hires two journalists who will help him in the research, frustrated by the possible loss of their careers, a concern Frost does not share until the end of the third session. And there, everything changes.

The story is, in my opinion, well orchestrated, although there are things that did not fully convince me: first, the fact that in various parts of the movie there were "testimonies" on the matter (done by actors, not the real people involved in the story), which seemed rather fake to me and broke the rhythm of the movie. On the other hand, in these testimonies, we are given very important information that would have been difficult to communicate otherwise. Second point, Frost's motivations. The initial goal was to achieve the highest ratings, but this is mentioned only once in the movie and never repeated. It seems that the host's new goal is to "engage in battle" with Nixon, but this is never stated or even implied. You realize it later, upon reflection (am I just slow?).

But Nixon's portrayal is exceptional. Frank Langella, nominated for an Oscar, manages to step into the character and make us "feel" him. He makes us feel his emotions, his problems, his doubts, especially about Watergate. Here, the focus isn't on the resemblance to the former president, but on the gestures, the language, and the psychology.

A film recommended for those who love History, Politics, and seeing Presidents of the United States of America in distress.