On Tuesday I was lucky enough to be invited to a BAFTA screening of Ron Howard’s new film, Frost/Nixon in BAFTA’s private Piccadilly cinema. Due to be released in January, the film is an adaptation of the critically-well-received play by Peter Morgan (who wrote 2006’s The Queen), and stars Michael Sheen and Frank Langella (who stared in the original West End and Broadway productions).
A dramatisation of David Frost’s interview with Richard Nixon following the US president’s resignation (after a gap of three years, during which Nixon was officially pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford, and many Americans called for a confession and apology from him), the film is similar in tone to last years Bobby, but differs in that it’s actually good (rather than a couple of hours of rambling hero worship…).
Sheen’s portrayal of David Frost proves that his skills of mimicry extend further than just impersonating Tony Blair (a role he’s played twice now), and the film is actually quite sympathetic in its depiction of Nixon – whom I’d guess is an easy target for vilification. There were, however, several moments of intentional comedy based around Nixon’s greed for money, and sadly these felt like cheap shots at the expense of the film’s integrity.
It was interesting to be part of a BAFTA audience; they quietly read all the credits at the end and then applaud. As a result I now know there were three stuntmen used in the film, but quite where the stunts were was a mystery to me…
Eaten by Monsters 