‘Frost/Nixon’

There are many reasons to see “Frost/Nixon” including extraordinary performances, but I’ll offer just one that stays with me. It’s extremely satisfying to watch a film in which nothing is wasted, no moment is trivial, each line spoken leads you to something more. And “Frost/Nixon” is exactly that -- a study in making the large or the small count. Consider the shoes. After months of negotiations by talk show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) to interview the disgraced Richard Nixon (Frank Langella), the fallen president has noticed the shoes Frost wears. You get the sense he likes them, but when military aide Jack Brennan (Kevin Bacon) dismisses them as Italian and effeminate, Nixon harrumphs, and you think nothing more of it. But no, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Peter Morgan stitch that small exchange into two later pivotal scenes that I won’t give away because they’re simply too delicious when experienced firsthand. So if you haven’t seen “Frost/Nixon” yet, watch for the shoes -- they are Italian and like the movie, very well made.