FROST/NIXON

"They call him Tricky Dickie for a reason"

In 1977, presenter David Frost (Sheen) was the talk show king. He had a show in the UK, Australia and the US and was a huge draw for some of the biggest show business guests in the world. When he decided to take a huge risk and try and book a guest that no one else would have the guile to even approach, even his producer John Birt (Macfadyen) thought he was going too far and taking too much of a risk. When the party seemed open to the suggestion however, especially after a large amount of money was placed in front of his representatives, Frost hired two investigative reporters Jack Brennan (Rockwell) and Bob Zelnick (Platt) to right the questions that would finally get answers to the questions the world wanted to know. This was because the man David Frost wanted to interview was the disgraced former US President Richard Nixon.

When one of the world's most famous TV presenters and a disgraced ex-US President come together for an interview, people expected sparks and this is exactly what you got.

Based on playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan's award winning play and with a screenplay of his own hand, Ron Howard's 'Frost/Nixon' documents the real life coming together of David Frost and former President Richard Nixon. Just as he did with 'The Last King of Scotland', 'The Other Boleyn Girl' and 'The Queen', Peter Morgan's play and subsequent screenplay blends real life events with pure drama to produce a character driven piece that is riveting and compelling from the very start.

When David Frost first had the gumption to try and book disgraced ex-President Richard Nixon for a series of interviews, no one, not his friends, colleagues and most importantly the TV Networks thought that the man most famous for interviewing celebrities and jet setting around the world could deliver a political, hard hitting interview. Of course he did and it went on to be a pivotal moment in his career. For Richard Nixon, he saw it as his chance to remind the American public there was more to his Presidency than just the Watergate scandal. Of course, Frost wouldn't and couldn't leave these questions out and as his advisors and researchers James Reston, Jr. and Bob Zelnick pushed for Frost to get Nixon to admit his guilt and most importantly, apologise to the American people.

This, of course is a fascinating subject that demands two extremely strong actors for the roles of Frost and Nixon. Returning to roles they established on the stage, Frank Langella and Michael Sheen are the only actors who could have ever played Richard Nixon and David Frost. With Langella winning the Tony Award in 2007 for his performance as Nixon, he gets the chance to show the movie going public how good he is in his career-defining role. Michael Sheen continues to show he is an exceptional actor when it comes to playing real life characters. As he did with ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair in 'The Queen' and 'The Deal', both written by Peter Morgan, he proves again he can completely become a character and recreate his mannerisms, voice and quirks to make you believe he is the character and he does the same with David Frost. The support is also extremely good with Kevin Bacon returning to form as Nixon's chief aide Jack Brennan, Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell are excellent as researchers Bob Zelnick and James Reston, Jr. and Rebecca Hall continues to make a splash in Hollywood as Caroline Cushing, David Frost's love interest.

'Frost/Nixon' is another excellent adaptation of a Peter Morgan script. The British playwright is quickly becoming the man Hollywood is turning to, to create scripts around real events and breathe life into real life characters. For Ron Howard, this shows that he is a director who can bring to life true stories with great gusto and passion. 'Frost/Nixon' is an exceptional example of character performance and a fascinating insight into one of the defining interviews in television history.

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The Queen

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2009