Frost/Nixon Reviews

The stage play-turned-big screen Oscar contender zips along from scene to scene with rare pep until building to a furious climax. And remember, this isn't a movie about alien invasions or pirate ghosts. It's a movie about two guys talking.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

While the main character is Michael Sheen's David Frost, Frank Langella is fascinating as the cold and withdrawn Richard Nixon.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

Textbook example of a Howard film -- with exactly the strengths and weaknesses this conveys. It differs only in that it's built around Frank Langella's towering performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Frost/Nixon is a riveting film, sharper, more intense than the play.

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Frost/Nixon is a historical fraud, a mind-boggling travesty of the truth. Let me hasten to add, however, that it is without doubt the most gripping, entertaining, dramatically clever and fascinating fraud I've ever seen.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

A history lesson and an acting lesson tied up in one stunning entertainment package.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10

[Howard takes] a cue from himself, from his own first truly great film more than a decade ago, Apollo 13... [T]here's an almost documentary-style straightforwardness to Frost/Nixon...

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Did it happen exactly this way? Probably not. But what fun to consider the details and the possible events before, and after, the interview between David Frost and disgraced President Richard Nixon

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4

I don't remember much about them [the interviews]...director Ron Howard packages Frost/Nixon with the best quotes from 28 hours of interviews, I will never forget them.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

Stirring stuff that works thrillingly as drama, and should make Sheen a star, even if it compromises on historical insight.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

Documentary-style reminiscences from supporting characters slow the film's momentum. The run-up to the big broadcasts, too, aren't so suspenseful. The best drama comes from Langella and Sheen as Nixon and Frost, and not necessarily while they're face-to-f

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Langella's Nixon is a tragic figure... Langella doesn't so much make him sympathetic as show us the flawed personality trying to avoid blaming himself for his failure.

| Original Score: 4/4

The outcome isn't half as conflicted as you might imagine, though it's hard to argue that Howard brings anything new to Morgan's play.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/6

Thought Ron Howard was going to stuff it up? Think again - Frost/Nixon's a great advert for stage-to-screen adaptations. And if you'd forgotten the power of the close-up, prepare to be dazzled by dapper Dave and Tricky Dick.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

It sounds like an awful night out in the cinema. But you will be amazed. In Frost/Nixon Ron Howard turns this duel between Michael Sheen's glossy playboy and Frank Langella's shifty ex-President into a gripping tango of egos.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

I found myself disconcerted and underwhelmed by a hugely anticipated movie. It never quite escapes its stage origins, and under a glitzy surface of period stylings doesn't seem to have much to say.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Langella is the reason to see the film, smuggling his lugubrious Tricky Dicky well past the script's limited grasp. It's a superb performance, looming like a spectre over the words and deeds of "misunderestimated" politicians everywhere.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

Most surprising of all, you may even feel a twinge of sympathy. Whether or not Nixon deserves it, this drama definitely deserves a look.

| Original Score: 4/5

This superb film shows, his conversations with Richard Nixon were far more illuminating than his recent banter with Lloyd Grossman.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

The two-hour plus running time zooms by as the so-called "thinking man's Rocky" plays like an intellectual boxing match with Nixon effortlessly dodging Frost's hesitant jabs and the young challenger looking like he won't last the distance.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5