CINEMA: Frost/Nixon

If you really want a lot of tension in a film, then look no further than this intelligently scripted, taut, tight look behind the scenes as British TV host David Frost (Michael Sheen as spot-on as ever) and disgraced American president Richard Nixon (a truly great performance from Frank Langella) locked horns for a series of television interviews.

The year was 1977, three years after Nixon had been forced to resign over the Watergate affair, and no one had been able to get him to admit his guilt in the buggings. But clever, ambitious David Frost thought he had the measure of the man and proposed a TV show based on their conversations and when no TV company would fund his project he almost bankrupted himself and his friends in order to pay Nixon to take part.

Much of the movie deals with the intricate preparations for the interviews, including meticulous research by Frost’s two helpers (nicely played in chalk and cheese fashion by Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell). But everything leads to the inevitable showdown on screen as the pair play cat and mouse with each other looking for chinks in their armour.

If you want to watch two actors giving pitch-perfect performances, then don’t miss this fascinating battle of two intellects matching each other blow by verbal blow until Frost finally gets in the sucker punch. You’ll watch him fall with great satisfaction.      Dee Pilgrim