Political corruption is so commonplace these days that we hardly bat an eyelash when we hear about the latest scandal involving a member of the U.S. government. A Senator was busted for propositioning a man in an airport bathroom? Someone else sent sexually explicit text messages to an aide? Yet another pol was busted with a high-priced prostitute? Ho hum. The only thing that seems to really shock us is when the culprits are so brazen about their actions that they practically dare someone to bust them (witness Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s attempts to sell a U.S. Senate seat).

So by today’s standards, former president Richard M. Nixon’s role in the Watergate break-in and subsequent cover-up attempts seem rather mundane. Is there anyone out there who thinks a similar act by a sitting president would consume the news cycle for more than two whole years today? I don’t. But back in the 1970s, it was a stunning act of deceit, one that caused Nixon to resign and reinforced the public’s distrust of government.

Nixon never admitted to wrongdoing, but he did come very close to it when he sat down with British journalist David Frost for an interview a few years after leaving office. Frost was supposed to be a softball kind of journalist, a playboy type of talk show personality rather than a hard-hitting interviewer, so it seemed odd that he would even be interested in sitting down with Nixon anyway. Apparently, Frost thought that he’d be able to make big bucks from advertisers if he got the president to talk about Watergate and Vietnam.

So Frost put up $600,000 of his own money to get Nixon, hired a team of professional researchers to help him with the preparation, and began filming the four days of interviews. At that point, he only had 33% of the necessary outside funding, and it appeared that the whole idea would turn into a colossal failure.

But on the very last day of the interview, Frost buckled down and started hammering Nixon on Watergate. He elicited the now-infamous quote that “if the President does it, it’s not illegal” and got Nixon to hesitate for a long moment when put on the spot about admitting guilt. Based on those two things, Frost was able to make a fortune from the tapes, Nixon was able to unburden his conscience (as much as possible without actually signing a confession), and 400 million people around the world tuned in to watch the interviews.

The Ron Howard film Frost/Nixon takes a behind-the-scenes look at what happened prior to, during, and after those interviews, mostly from Frost’s point of view.

My Reaction: Although I wasn’t exactly expecting a gripping political thriller here, I wasn’t quite ready for the utter snoozefest that Frost/Nixon turned out to be. I admit that I was suckered by all the rave reviews this film has earned from critics like Roger Ebert and Peter Travers, and decided to see this one based on the strength of their comments alone. Ugh, that’ll teach me!

First of all, neither of the lead characters in this film were likable at all. On the one hand, you have the unbalanced, paranoid, defiant Richard Nixon (played by Frank Langella), and though Ron Howard tries to show Nixon’s vulnerabilities and loneliness, it simply wasn’t enough to make me feel anything for the man. On the other hand, there was the shallow, just-happy-to-be-here David Frost (Michael Sheen), who cared more about making a killing off his investment than about uncovering any truths. Again, I couldn’t sympathize or otherwise care about what was happening to this guy.

Yes, I know these are historical figures and therefore the actors can’t very well turn them into something they weren’t, but still… what I’m driving at here is that I don’t understand why anyone would think that this would be a compelling topic for a feature film instead of, say, a documentary.

Also, I was decidedly underwhelmed by what people consider to be Nixon’s “admission of guilt”. He paused and looked a little remorseful. That was it? Sorry, but if that’s the highlight of David Frost’s journalistic career, I really don’t understand the big deal was about. It wasn’t exactly Jack Nicholson screaming, “You’re goddamn right I did!” in A Few Good Men, know what I mean?

Frost/Nixon might appeal to those who first saw the actual interviews as they aired in the late ’70s or to those students of history who are intensely interested in the Nixon administration. But for average moviegoers like me, I think the whole project falls flat. I give it 2 stars out of 5, and wouldn’t sit through it again if you paid me!