I need to say that I’ve seen plenty of factual event based movies, but I can’t recall ever watching a movie based off the events around and including a news interview. Maybe the Watergate and eventual Nixon resignation is an exception all to itself (Nixon is the only U.S. President to resign from office). I can only imagine how hard it is for a director to make dramatic events engaging for the audience. I know that I’m quite the Ron Howard fan-boy (I really like his work), however when I watched F/N I didn’t know he directed it.
It was actually quite surprising the big names they got to play characters in a movie that wasn’t quite an art piece and wasn’t quite a blockbuster. Not living during the Nixon era really makes it hard to begin to compare the personality and the gravely voice portrayed by Frank Langella, but after watching a few of the interview clips on youtube I can tell that they greatly over-dramaticized the deepness and slowness of his voice and inflection. It didn’t change throughout the movie though, so it made it more believable and relatable.
The acting of the other characters was top-notch. And along with the facts that they were throwing out this was probably a fact-checker’s nightmare to review. The conspiracy theories obviously abounded, but they weren’t overdone. The focus of the movie stayed on the events leading up to and including the interview of Richard Nixon by David Frost.
One thing that I’ve noticed about myself in the last few years is that if I’m watching a movie at home, I’m quite distracted. I’ve usually got my laptop out in front of me and checking twitter and whatnot while a movie is going. I didn’t do that with this one. It was very much the acting and the writing that accomplished this feat. Obvioulsy this was not lost on the awards community. Nominated for 5 Oscars including Actor, Picture, Director.
This one is a must buy. You will watch it again.
–dez
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