Frost/Nixon

In the summer of 1974 I was 17 and pretty much a nerd, as I view me back then. I wasn't free to do what I wanted like most 17yr-olds were, but nobody made me sit in my Elm Grove apartment and watch some dude named John Dean talk about some obscure place called "Watergate," either. The 9-foot deep pool with the high dive at Elm Grove Park beckoned, but silly me resisted its call more than once. I'm sitting... watching... John Dean, Haldeman, and Erhlichman... because I wanted to. I loved it.

I spent many long afternoons watching dudes with German names sitting behind desks under bright lights and in front of cameras.... answering searing questions posed by seemingly unhappy men. Why I did, I cannot say. Not even now. I must not be your average Negro.
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For me, there were two scenes in Frost/Nixon that respected me as a movie viewer. Ron Howard tends to respect the viewers of his films that way. Not all movie viewers are as bright as they should be. That said, the former Opie understands that not all need to have things spelled out. He figures that some are just as smart as him. Some are.

There are two scenes.

A door is closing. You see as a man begins to smile. The door closes.

There's a late-night phone call. It does not necessarily portray actual events. While not telling the literal truth about what happened, it doesn't lie about him, either.

A dichotomy like that is hard to pull off accurately. Howard does it in Frost/Nixon. He tells a lie while telling a truth. Hard to do. Never seen it before.

Two scenes.

I give it a 9 point 5.

Other than the pointless candy Caroline (and she was fine to look at), I saw no flaws.

Regular Americans shouldn't bother. Go see Slumdog.