‘Frost/Nixon’

Ron Howard has never been what you would call a critic’s favorite, but “Frost/Nixon” is changing that. Using his experience, his professionalism and his skills, the director successfully has opened up the Peter Morgan play without pushing anything too hard, and he’s made the most of the stars of that theatrical original, Michael Sheen and Tony Award winner Frank Langella. The result is involving, engrossing cinema, more thrilling, in fact, than “The Da Vinci Code,” filmmaking of a type rarely seen anymore and sorely missed.

-- Kenneth Turan