l)f {AMA FROST] NIXON (15) 122min me
If you didn’t get a chance to see Michael Grandage’s celebrated and award-winning production of Peter Morgan's two-hander, which dramatised one of the most famous interviews in the history of television broadcasting, then Ron Howard’s film adaptation, in which Michael Sheen and Frank Langella reprise their roles as, respectively, popular British broadcaster David Frost and detested ex-president of the US, Richard Nixon, is the next best thing.
It could be argued that you get more for your money with the movie version, given that Howard, working from a screenplay retooled by Morgan, has opened up and expanded upon the original, which was confined to the four interviews sessions recorded between Frost and Nixon in 1977. The film expands on those encounters by filling in the backstories of the characters - Frost the international media playboy whose ego led to him (almost) biting off more than he could chew, Nixon the disgraced president desperate
42 THE LIS'I' 22 Jan~5 Feb 200‘.)
to put the record (as he saw it) straight and salvage his legacy - and by detailing the build-up to their televised big fight and bringing in the supporting players: Frost‘s producer (Matthew MacFadyen), strategist (Oliver Platt) and researcher (Sam Rockwell) and Nixon’s chief of staff (Kevin Bacon) and agent ‘Swifty' Lazar (Toby Jones)
It’s possible that some of the punch of the more tightly focused play is lost in translation to the screen, but the addition of the new material avoids the pitfall of becoming a stagy film. It also sets the four central face-offs in historical and cultural contexts and, no less importantly for a mainstream Hollywood production, provides many amusing moments, not least Frost arguing with his producer in the LWT canteen. In any event, the performances by Sheen and Langella (who’s being mooted for an Oscar nomination) are as fine as you’d expect them to be, considering they played the parts on stage for two years. And so, in the end it’s the scenes in which they square up to one another in front of the camera, one on the offensive then the other, that really stand out. (Miles Fielder)
I General release from /—'n 23 Jan.
ROMANCE /l )HAMA
(15) 112min ”0
Debra Winger).
(Eddie Harrison) I General release from Frr 23 Jan.
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
lllflll l f it VALKYRIE (12A) 120min 00”
Secret (‘iermany and the l’t) .luly tsl-t-t plot to assussungite flrtler get the ."J treatment If) Bryan X Men Stnger's; engaging new thnller
Months before the end of World War II, anstrx:ratrc (lolonel (ilaus; Schenk von Stauflenlxzrg (lom (Innse belng Intense and low key) became the dnvuig force behind an attempted coup to overthrow the l uhrer ()n L’t) .July Stauffenberg, then a member of the general stall placed a bomb next to l lttler lll hrs; east l’russuan headquarters, the Wolf's; I all What led up to thrs; event and what happenrxl afterwards; ts; forged llllt) a big cast caper tllck
l rke Spielberg, EEtnger Is; capable of fusing ancient and modem to giddy effect, so recent (‘ieiman huts; Downfall and lhe l Ives; ol Others; are cross; pollrnated wuth Anatole l ltvak's eccentnc 196/ Mm occupred Warsaw thriller lhe N/ght ol the ()enerals; (a W staple throughout the 1980s, Singer, the New York kld With a Na/l fetish, Is; likely to have seen it many trmes) It's; a nutty llllX that doesn't always; work (htstnonrr, scenes are problematic) partrcularly when ESInger tnes; to put things; on the clock a la lV's; 24. Substxiuently Valkyrie does drag Ill places; but it It; never less; than perversely Wlllf;()lll(,‘,
lom thkinson. Kenneth ltranagh, Bill nghy, (Lance van l louten, lhornas. Kretschrnann, lerrence Stamp, Kevrn McNally and l ddie l//ard round out an excellent I uropean supporting cast. (Paul Dale) I General release lrorn lr/ 9ft Jan. See prevrew.
Don't be fooled by the soft core tttle. S/lence of the l arnhs; director Jonathan Demme has come over all Danish for his new feature. I ifttng the shaky cam aesthetic of lhoinas thtertmrg's Dogme classrc l'esten, Rachel Gett/ng Marrrrxl rs siriiilarly structured around a tense family gathering.
In a classy script by Jenny Lumet, daughter of veteran drrector Srdney, black sheep Kym (Anne Hathaway) Is tentatively withdrawn from rehab to attend the weddlng of her grxxly—twoshoes sister Rachel (Rosemarie De Wrtt). Tensions run high through the wedding rehearsals. wrth Kym's famtly grvrng her the cold shoulder over past misdeeds. A srxxnlngly innocuous dismgreement brings Kyrn's secret to the surface, causnng a chain reaction of bitter arguments that culrnrnates in an explosive confrontation between Kym and her mother Abby (a venomous
Few dlfOClOlS know how to stoke emotional tensron Irke [)ernme, and while Rachel Gett/ng Married never stooos to soap—opera melrxtrama, ll excels as a Character study of a difficult but Sympathetic heroune. lt offers a tlght adult ensemble orece, which rtses to high drama from the seemlngly lnnrx;uous.