Frost/Nixon

Ron Howard’s adaptation of Peter Morgan’s play is well-played as far as it goes, but as with Milk’s quasi-documentary, it tends more toward the quasi-. All is forgiven for Frank Langella’s portrayal of Nixon, humanizing the bogey man who haunted my youth. I guess it’s a compliment to call Michael Sheen’s portrayal of Frost convincingly fatuous, until the dark night of the soul when he becomes a responsible journalist. It’s rather absurd how the film buys into the mano a mano fantasies of the pair. Once again, the artificiality of a theater piece is unmasked by the unavoidable actuality of film. Nice try, but the need to insert a standard dramatic arc (and eye candy like Rebecca Hall) undermines the veracity of the documentary intent. (2008, dvd, n.) *6+* (MC-80.)