You can't trust movies for facts, you just can't. And you especially can't trust a movie for political facts--not too many folks making movies show up without a big ol' stewpot of politics they're just dying to feed you. So "Frost/Nixon" ought to be a buffet of opportunity to bash Nixon without the inconvenience of rebuttal, rewrite the era for a generation who gets its history from entertainment, and portray Nixon as George Bush with jowels.
But "Frost/Nixon" is a surprise. Accuracy aside--it appears correct in detail though not in tone--the picture offers up these two as professional climbers, each desperately needy in his own way, each possessing something that would complete the other. Frost covets Nixon's gravitas--that he is disgraced seems not to tarnish the appeal in the least for Frost--and Nixon covets Frost's common ability to, well, be liked.
To tell the story this way is to do almost nothing but leverage stereotypes--and again, the truth is probably taking the hindmost--but it feels real; rather, it is emotionally effective, and that's what movies are all about. In this case, the pulling of the big punch is not only a relief, it is the wiser choice for making entertainment.
"Frost/Nixon" avoids Big Obvious Statements for a study of two people and not, mercifully, a study of the politics, or the era, or morality--imagine the preachy mess if director Ron Howard and writer Peter Morgan set out to make not "Frost/Nixon" but "Good/Evil." They made the right choice.
I liked "Frost/Nixon." I think you will, too.
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