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Frost/Nixon
Universal Pictures


7.5

based on 38 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 63 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for some language

Starring Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Matthew Macfadyen, Kevin Bacon, Oliver Platt, and Sam Rockwell

For three years after being forced from office, Nixon remained silent. But in summer 1977, the steely, cunning former commander-in-chief agreed to sit for one all-inclusive interview to confront the questions of his time in office and the Watergate scandal that ended his presidency. Nixon surprised everyone in selecting Frost as his televised confessor, intending to easily outfox the breezy British showman and secure a place in the hearts and minds of Americans. Likewise, Frost's team harbored doubts about their boss' ability to hold his own. But as cameras rolled, a charged battle of wits resulted. Would Nixon evade questions of his role in one of the nation's greatest disgraces? Or would Frost confound critics and bravely demand accountability from the man who'd built a career out of stonewalling? Over the course of their encounter, each man would reveal his own insecurities, ego and reserves of dignity--ultimately setting aside posturing in a stunning display of unvarnished truth. (Universal Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Peter Morgan
DIRECTED BY:	Ron Howard
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 21, 2009 Theatrical: December 5, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	122 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA \| UK \| France

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's hard to imagine how a film built around one-on-one interviews could be entertaining, but Frost/Nixon could not be more enthralling.

100

TV Guide Perry Seibert

The craftsmanship, acting, and history lesson all make it among the most satisfying films of Ron Howard's career.

100

Premiere Staff (Not credited)

A totally mesmerizing battle of the wills between the occasionally charming yet wily Nixon and the increasingly desperate Frost.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Frank Langella and Michael Sheen do not attempt to mimic their characters, but to embody them.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Morgan finds the right elements of action and character through which to make history leap off the page.

100

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Langella has always been a cerebral actor, one who never gives away all he's thinking. What comes through in this portrayal is how smart Nixon was, whether he's cunningly probing Frost's weaknesses or pitching himself to TV viewers as an avuncular, misunderstood Cold Warrior.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

In a masterful performance, Langella highlights Nixon's oily charm and guile.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Surges with an energy and visual verve that improve the play and enhance the themes of dramatist Peter Morgan's script.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

The result is involving, engrossing cinema -- more thrilling, in fact, than Howard's "The Da Vinci Code" -- filmmaking of a type rarely seen anymore and sorely missed.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

What Ron Howard gets, to a degree that's astonishing in a two-hour film, is the density and complexity, as well as the generous entertainment quotient, of Peter Morgan's screenplay.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Director Ron Howard has turned Peter Morgan's stage success into a grabber of a movie laced with tension, stinging wit and potent human drama.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Howard and Morgan have transformed this story into something more than an embellished re-telling of recent history. They have shaped a tragedy that is almost Shakespearean in force.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Sheen, who is also reprising his stage role and appeared as Tony Blair in the Morgan-written "The Queen," is highly effective as Frost - though the stakes for Frost are nowhere near as interesting as those for Nixon.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Ron Howard has made his best movie with Frost/Nixon, an electric political drama with a skin-prickling immediacy.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

The result is a totally absorbing and entertaining film, one of the best historical dramas from Hollywood in many years.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Throughout, it's clouded -- for me at least -- by a nagging sense that it's straining too hard to build the media clash into more of an historic event than it was.

Washington Post Philip Kennicott

Neither the title nor the subject matter prepares you for the pure fun of Frost/Nixon.

NPR Bob Mondello

A case is being made here that it wasn't really Frost who did Nixon in: It was Nixon's old nemesis, the TV camera.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Frost/Nixon's main attraction is neither its topicality nor its historical value, but Langella's re-creation of his Tony-winning performance.

Newsweek David Ansen

Frost/Nixon works even better on screen. Director Ron Howard and Morgan, adapting his own play, have both opened up the tale and, with the power of close-ups, made this duel of wits even more intimate and suspenseful.

The New Yorker David Denby

Offers considerable insight into the Nixon mystery, without solving it; the movie is fully absorbing and even, when Nixon falls into a drunken, resentful rage, exciting, but I can't escape the feeling that it carries about it an aura of momentousness that isn't warranted by the events.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Howard has made a picture for grown-ups, a well-constructed entertainment that neither talks down to its audience nor congratulates it just for showing up.

Empire Ian Nathan

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

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Ultimately, Frost/Nixon may be stuck in time – but, oh, what a time it was.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Frost/Nixon is wholly absorbing.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Frost/Nixon is not the epic gladiatorial face-off, the ricocheting verbal shoot-out that writer Morgan and filmmaker Howard imagined.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Shakespeare would have delighted in the chapter, especially in the antagonist, but not at the expense of the longer and darker and still-unfinished book.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Never entirely escapes its theatrical origins, and, by framing the story so pugilistically, the filmmakers don't bring out the full richness in this material.

Time Richard Corliss

For closeup conflict and emotional kick, the Frost/Nixon movie tops the play. But neither can match the tension and weird poignancy of the original interviews -- reality TV of the highest, queasiest order.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Ron Howard directed, with outstanding support from Kevin Bacon as Jack Brennan, Nixon's fierce chief of staff.

Slate Dana Stevens

Morgan's compact, satisfying drama presents presidential interviewing as a gladiatorial event.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Stories of lost crowns lend themselves to drama, but not necessarily audience-pleasing entertainments, which may explain why Frost/Nixon registers as such a soothing, agreeably amusing experience, more palliative than purgative.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Frank Langella's meticulous performance will generate the sort of attention that will attract serious filmgoers.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Less a political movie than a boxing film without the gloves.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Despite a moving, canny incarnation of the man by Frank Langella, despite a slickly entertaining coffee-table production as only Ron Howard knows how, the movie feels cooked up.

Film Threat Scott Mendelson

Fails to add anything of substance to the history that it portrays.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Despite the great care and research that went into the movie, Frost/Nixon pales in comparison to Oliver Stone's "Nixon" when it comes to humanizing the infamous leader.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

Unsatisfying even if, like me, you're a lifelong aficionado of Nixon-bashing.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 63 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Matt J. gave it a9:
One of the best movies of 2009. I have no interest in this subject but I still thought this movie was amazing... I would recommend it to almost anyone.

paul j gave it a1:
The movie should've been called frost with a cameo by nixon, absolutely horrible.

xLAWx gave it an8:
Outstanding casts and director and also a fast paced movie. One of the best films of the year.

jai m gave it a9:
Very interesting. Definitely recommended by me.

Jay H gave it a7:
The fact I find both Richard Nixon and David Frost boring, doesn't help my outlook on this film. The craftmanship by Ron Howard is exceptional however. Fine performances. Frank Langella is good, but I didn't find him outstanding.

T F gave it a0:
Ignores a lot of what really transpired. Ignores Frost's own version of the events, and instead goes for a sentimentality instead of giving us a good narrative. Unfortunately, this is what people think of as history these days, twisted mediocre movies that barely tell the tale and never help us realize what the importance of an event was.

Dale M. gave it a3:
For the most part, the film tries to make history out of something that really wasn't that important historically. Who are they trying to kid? There is some evidence, however, that the director wants to portray a once powerful and full-of-himself leader brought to level where, with the help of a rather simple-minded fool, he admits his flaws and sees his humanity. Just kidding! That would be King Lear, not Frost/Nixon. It is sad that some people apparently can't appreciate the difference. PS: Nixon did not look or talk like the guy in the film.

Frost/Nixon Universal Pictures

Frost/Nixon
Universal Pictures