Review: Frost/Nixon

LIGHTS, CAMERA... TALKING

dir: Ron Howard

starring: Michael Sheen, Frank Langella, Kevin Bacon

You could be forgiven for having been completely unaware of the interviews between talk-show host David Frost and disgraced ex-US President Richard Nixon before the publicity blitz of this film. However, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan would want you to think that it was one of the most important moments for politics, journalism and basically American culture in modern history, and are willing to spend two hours to convince you of just that. Whether or not you end up believing them is one thing, but you can’t doubt their tenacity and the fact that they very nearly succeed is thanks in no small part to the committed cast, particularly (and unsurprisingly) Michael Sheen and Frank Langella, who serve as the titular acting duet.

Langella may be the one getting all the attention for his stooping, roaring performance as the proud, dying lion that is Richard Nixon, and it is easy to see why. Mimicry being what mimicry is, he naturally and effectively disappears inside the role, and the entire film seems built to serve his performance (even pointing it out as Frost is criticized by his team for allowing Nixon to dominate the early interviews). However, it is Michael Sheen who quietly steals the film away from him, not only bringing the much needed pathos to a film that could otherwise have just been two arrogant men talking to one-another, but also imbuing the film with a surprising lightness of touch. In particular, the early scenes establishing Frost’s character – the loud suits, the self-assured flirting, the ridiculous celebrity embellishments – are very funny in Sheen’s capable grasp. It seems at first that he may just be doing his Tony Blair again, the role that made him famous in both The Deal and The Queen, but so sleight is Sheen’s hand that you won’t notice as the cocky smile weakens and the shifty eyes deepen that he has turned the character completely inside-out.

While the film is all about Frost and Nixon, however, with a cast featuring such heavyweight character actors as Sam Rockwell and Oliver Platt, there is some great acting from the sidelines as well, and it all serves as a welcome distraction from the weight of Peter Morgan’s screenplay, which is almost as self-aggrandizing as David Frost himself. Morgan is a fine writer, and as he has proved with The Queen and The Last King Of Scotland, he is extremely adept at making engrossing stories and compelling characters out of episodes of history that wouldn’t immediately seem to lend themselves to theatricalising. Along with Ron Howard, himself a consistently strong, adept filmmaker, he has created an absorbing, well-paced tale (apart from the misjudged documentary structure it has given itself), successfully finding character arcs in what is a very talky piece as the publicity-hungry Frost soon begins to realise that his selfish reasons for wanting to conduct the interviews – fame and fortune in America – pale in comparison to what his team, and the entire American public, expect of them – the trial Nixon never had to face over the Watergate Scandal.

However, Morgan is ultimately unable to escape from the inherent problems that the story itself brings with it. The film obviously fancies itself a call for the necessities of journalism on this age of Fox News, or a topical parable about a despised ex-President marred in scandal being brought to justice (how many Americans must wish that someone like David Frost was around nowadays?) but there is no ignoring the fact that the Frost/Nixon interviews were merely a relatively inconsequential event here being treated as if they were life-and-death.

VERDICT: *** out of *****

Oscar Nomination Predictions 2009

The Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow morning/afternoon (depending on where you are) and as such, here are my nomination predictions. Just to be a smart-arse, I predict every category, because generally I’m better at the smaller, more obscure categories. People assume that they are just guesswork, but they’re not. If you know your Oscar history, like I do, then you can make educated assumptions on them. With the bigger categories, like Picture or Actor, it’s generally just keeping your eyes and ears open throughout the season and seeing who has been nominated for other awards. But, like William Goldman once said, nobody knows anything.

BEST PICTURE

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - The Dark Knight

 - Frost/Nixon

 - Milk

 - Slumdog Millionaire

If anyone would have told me this time last year that I’d be bored during an Oscar season where films by Danny Boyle, David Fincher and Christopher Nolan are front-runners, I wouldn’t have believed them, but the only surprising thing about the Oscar race this year is how bored I have been. These five have been sewn up since pretty much the beginning, with both the Producers Guild and – most crucially – the Director’s Guild nominating all five. Some people will try and convince you that Golden Globe and BAFTA shut-outs for Milk and Dark Knight mean that they are weak in the race, and a film like The Reader may sneak in, but they’re wrong. It’s these five all the way.

BEST DIRECTOR

 - Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

 - David Fincher, The Curious Case

 - Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon

 - Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight

 - Gus Van Sant, Milk

The same logic applies to the Director race. Generally, Best Picture and Best Director never match up 5-for-5, and there is always a lone-director nominee in the mix (last year being Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell & The Butterfly over Atonement’s Joe Wright) and maybe this year Darren Aronofsky could sneak in for The Wrestler, but that seems unlikely. No other directors have really got any traction this year, so for only the second time since 1981 (the last time was in 2005), there will be a Picture-Director match.

BEST ACTOR

 - Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino

 - Richard Jenkins, The Visitor

 - Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon

 - Sean Penn, Milk

 - Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Penn, Rourke and Langella are sewn-up, they’ve got these nominations in the bag, and Richard Jenkins has been a well-respected character actor for years and has finally broken through so I’d say he’s sitting pretty as well. That leaves the fifth spot open, and there are three actors gunning for it. Leonardo DiCaprio for Revolutionary Road, Brad Pitt for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button and Clint Eastwood for Gran Torino. Leo hasn’t really been getting any support from any of the other awards bodies, as people don’t really love his film, and those who do are all focusing on Kate Winslet. Brad Pitt would seem like a good bet, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get the final spot either, but while people are marvelling at Benjamin Button’s technical achievements, no one is really seeing it as an actor’s film. Then we have Clint, who hasn’t been getting as much awards attention as the other two, but that has never stopped the Academy before when it comes to him. They love Eastwood, and Gran Torino has been a hit, so I see him getting in. And who knows, if he does, he may even win it if they decide Penn doesn’t need another one and Rourke is too much of a renegade.

BEST ACTRESS

 - Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married

 - Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky

 - Melissa Leo, Frozen River

 - Meryl Streep, Doubt

 - Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

There have only been seven actresses in the race this year, with these five, Angelina Jolie for Changeling and Kristen Scott-Thomas in I’ve Loved You So Long. The only ones I’ve predicted who may be weak are Sally Hawkins (no Screen Actor’s Guild nomination) and Melissa Leo (not enough people know who she is) but both have been winning critical awards by the barrel, and the Academy love it when Mike Leigh finds a new female muse, so Hawkins is in, and Best Actress is the kindest category to women who were in critical darlings released early in the year (as Julie Christie and Marion Cotillard found out last year) so that's good for both her and Leo. Some might be shocked if Angelina Jolie gets snubbed, but don’t forget that she was in exactly the same situation last year when she didn’t get nominated for A Mighty Heart. She has Golden Globe and SAG nominations, but people just didn’t care for the film, and her icy, aloof demeanour seems to put people off. Of course, the might want to make it up to her for last year, but I’ll kick myself if Leo gets nominated and it doesn’t look like I saw it coming.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

 - Josh Brolin, Milk

 - Robert Downey, Jr., Tropic Thunder

 - Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt

 - Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

 - Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

All five of these guys are safe. Supporting Actor has been a weak category this year, as it has basically just been Heath Ledger and friends for the whole season. James Franco could get in for Milk instead of Dev Patel, but I think Slumdog love will see him in quite safely. If he isn’t nominated, it will be the first time since 1995 (Braveheart) that there is a Best Picture winner with no acting nominations (I know, I know, Lord Of The Rings, but that was a different situation altogether.)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

 - Amy Adams, Doubt

 - Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

 - Viola Davis, Doubt

 - Kate Winslet, The Reader

 - Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rosemary DeWitt (Rachel Getting Married) or Taraji P. Henson (Benjamin Button) get nominated over Amy Adams, but she’s been getting constant nominations all season, and she has the name recognition and previous nomination that those other two don’t. However, it would be odd for Doubt to get four acting nominations and no Best Picture nomination, so it wouldn’t surprise me if she got snubbed. Henson seemed like a safe bet earlier in the year, but like I said, Benjamin Button just isn’t considered an actor’s movie.

And here are the rest of my predictions...

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

 - Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh

 - Milk, Dustin Lance Black

 - Rachel Getting Married, Jenny Lumet

 - Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Woody Allen 

 - The Wrestler, Robert D. Seigel

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Eric Roth

 - Doubt, John Patrick Shanley

 - Frost/Nixon, Peter Morgan

 - The Reader, David Hare

 - Slumdog Millionaire, Simon Beaufoy

BEST ANIMATED FILM

 - Kung-Fu Panda

 - WALL-E

 - Waltz With Bashir

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

 - The Baader Meinhoff Complex (Germany)

 - Everlasting Moments (Sweden)

 - The Necessities Of Life (Canada)

 - Revance (Austria)

 - Waltz With Bashir (Israel)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

 - The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)

 - Blessed Is The Match: The Life And Death Of Hannah Senesh

 - Man On A Wire

 - They Killed Sister Dorothy

 - Trouble In The Water

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - The Dark Knight

 - Slumdog Millionaire

 - The Reader

 - Revolutionary Road

BEST ART DIRECTION

 - Australia

 - Changeling

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - Frost/Nixon

 - Milk

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

 - Australia

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - Changeling

 - The Duchess

 - The Reader

BEST FILM EDITING

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - The Dark Knight

 - Frost/Nixon

 - Milk

 - Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - The Dark Knight

 - Revolutionary Road

 - Slumdog Millionaire

 - WALL-E

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

 - “Down to Earth” from WALL-E

 - “I Thought I Lost You” from Bolt

 - “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire

 - “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire

 - “The Wrestler” from The Wrestler

BEST SOUND MIXING

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - The Dark Knight

 - Iron Man

 - Slumdog Millionaire

 - WALL-E

BEST SOUND EDITING

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - The Dark Knight

 - Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull

 - Iron Man

 - WALL-E

BEST MAKEUP

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - The Reader

 - The Wrestler

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

 - The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button

 - The Dark Knight

 - Iron Man

The nominations are announced tomorrow afternoon, so I'll post my thoughts on the huge surprises/inevitable predictabilities (delete as applicable) tomorrow evening.