Watching Frost/Nixon, I could see why the original Broadway play become such a sensation and its stars were so highly lauded. What I still don't see is the reason anyone thought it needed to be turned into a movie.

Adapted by Peter Morgan from his own play, featuring the two stars from the stage and directed by Ron Howard with the straightforward blandness he reserves for his ''important'' movies (The Da Vinci Code, A Beautiful Mind), Frost/Nixon faithfully reenacts the events leading up to the historic 1977 interviews between British TV personality David Frost (Michael Sheen) and President Richard M. Nixon (Frank Langella), who consented to sit down and chat with the host for a fee of $600,000.

On stage, I can imagine Langella's performance as Nixon -- blusterous, arrogant, fascinated with peculiar details and a master at head games -- would have seemed commanding. But the talky, vaguely self-important movie doesn't provide any further illumination or insight into the tortured psyche of the disgraced president. No matter how many close-ups Howard gives him, Nixon remains a pitiable enigma: When, at the climax of the interview, he justifies his abuses by saying ''When the President does it, it's not illegal,'' what should be a revelatory moment comes off as perfunctory instead.

As the increasingly desperate Frost, who knew he had to get Nixon to make some sort of confession if he was to continue his waning career in television, Sheen comes off as something of a huckster who basically got lucky.

Despite the great care and research that went into the movie, Frost/Nixon pales in comparison to Oliver Stone's Nixon when it comes to humanizing the infamous leader. And the film doesn't say anything new about the effect of the media on history either, other than to say it's all driven by the mighty dollar. Big news flash, that.

Cast: Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Kevin Bacon, Rebecca Hall, Toby Jones, Oliver Platt, Sam Rockwell

Director: Ron Howard

Screenwriter: Peter Morgan. Based on his own play.

Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Tim Bevan.

A Universal Pictures release. Running time: 122 minutes. Vulgar language. Playing at area theaters. In Miami-Dade: Regal South Beach, AMC Aventura.

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