Being guilt-ridden doesn’t really seem to be an issue in modern times (let’s call that the Bush era to the present). Everyone’s too destitute to consider the similar circumstances of others. So when writer-director Nicole Holofcener penned the script for Please Give, one gets the sense that there was a subconscious attempt to shock the film’s viewers out of both self-involvement and half-assed caring.

The not so perfect married couple

The characters of Kate (indie film regulator Catherine Keener) and Alex (still not dead Oliver Platt), two antique furniture dealers living in Manhattan, are the ideal vessels by which to convey a concise image of self-absorption, but it isn’t the glaring sort of self-absorption of someone like Narcissus or Andy Warhol. That level of egoism is saved for Amanda Peet’s character, Mary, who proudly flaunts how consumed by vanity she is with her fake tan and chosen profession as a facialist. By contrast, there is Mary’s sister, Rebecca (Rebecca Hall) who, out of a sense of duty and as a self-appointed martyr, takes care of their hostile grandmother when she isn’t administering mammograms for a living. To round out the quartet in favor of a pentagon in varying degrees of megalomania is Abby (Sarah Steele), Kate and Alex’s acne-riddled, image obsessed daughter.

Promotional poster for Please Give

Abby’s views are in stark opposition to her mother’s. When Abby befriends Rebecca on their daily walks with each owner’s dog, Abby explains that her mother cannot even walk down the street without bursting into tears at the sight of the palpable suffering and, resultantly, doling out cash to the homeless. Rather than being in awe of the gesture, Abby is irritated by it, saying that her mother should give the money to her and not a total stranger. And, in an obvious way, this makes sense. There are many, adolescents especially, who cannot see the benefit of giving money to someone who isn’t even close to them. This is where the “If you teach a man to fish” argument comes in.

Amanda Peet as Mary

Finally, devoured by guilt for what she has and how she makes her living (paying far lower prices for furniture than she sells it for), Kate tries to volunteer for both an olds’ home and a sports program for autistic children (or maybe they weren’t autistic, that’s like my go-to impairment). But this proves fruitless as well as she is told not to talk about death with any of the olds and cannot bear to see any of the children in the outreach program simply because, “It’s just so sad.”

Rebecca (left) watching TV with her polar opposite sister, Mary

There is an appropriateness to the film’s promotional poster, a bleeding heart pouring over Catherine Keener as she gives money to a vagabond. What Holofcener leads us to believe is that if you think discriminately about all of the things you do, you’ll see that very little of those things are geared toward bettering anyone’s life but your own. And if you think about that too often, you’ll be weighed down with an Atlas-sized globe of remorse for all of the people and events you can’t fix.

Frost/Nixon is the latest film in the illustrious career of actor / director Ron Howard. Howard is slowly moving his way top the elite directors in Hollywood, but I really think he could have done more with such a powerful story. In my mind, this was an Oscar contender for picture of the year, but the film only showed flashes of brilliance that was not sustained throughout.

Frost/Nixon Film Poster

Frost/Nixon is a retelling of the true story behind a series of television interviews between David Frost (played by Michael Sheen) and former US president Richard Nixon (played by Frank Langella). The film starts out with actual news footage of the time, relating to the Watergate cover-up scandal. Frost is a talk show host with shows in Australia and England, and from what the movie depicts, sort of decides on a whim that he is going to interview Richard Nixon. He secures the interviews with Nixon after brokering a deal through Swifty Lazar (played by Toby Jones) for $600,000. On his flight to California, Frost starts flirting with the lovely Caroline Cushing (played by Rebecca Hall), who evolves into his right-hand bitch.

James Reston, Jr. (played by Sam Rockwell), Bob Zelnick (played by Oliver Platt), and John Birt (played by Matthew Macfadyen) do all the background work for Frost’s interview questions – they make up Frost’s “corner” – while Frost galavants around with Cushing to various events to rub elbows with big wigs and sponsors. Throughout the interview scenes, it really felt like a boxing match, with each fighter having their respective corner that they received aid from. In Nixon’s “corner” was Jack Brennan (played by Kevin Bacon), and Diane Sawyer (played by Kate Jennings Grant). Brennan was essentially Nixon’s main adviser, and wanted nothing more than the former president to have his legacy restored, and his name publicly cleared.

The Setting During one of the Interviews

In the film, Frost is depicted as a free spirit, almost like Austin Powers I would say, who really does not take these interviews seriously until the final stage, which revolved around the Watergate scandal. His major concern was insuring that he had a good time, and that the project would receive adequate funding, with small glimmers of actual concern about the quality of the interviews. Nixon is portrayed fairly accurately from what history says about him, as a somewhat charming, arrogant, long-winded, powerful man. Admittedly, I felt a bit anxious before the film went into the first day of filming the interviews, which is good – it is what they wanted me to feel after all this build up and preparation. The movie all lead up to the final interview – the Watergate interview – but the most powerful scene is a phone call that occurs the Friday prior to this final showdown.

Langella steals the show. From his Nixon accent, to his mannerisms and swagger, he did Nixon beautifully. Typically I am very weary when films actually show the face of famous / political icons, let alone when they have them in a leading role; the worry is always that the actor won’t be able to pull it off, and it will bring down the quality of the picture, but Langella knocked this shit out of the park. Rockwell and Platt gave strong and real roles aiding the Frost campaign, and Bacon was his usual brilliant self. These three gentlemen did a banging job in their supporting roles.

Nixon Waving to the Crowd Outside the Home where the Interviews were Held

The thorn in my side is the role of Frost – maybe it was just the character, maybe it was Sheen, or maybe it was a combination of the two – but this is where I think the film lacked intensity. Understandably, if that is how Frost acted in reality, then that is how he should be depicted in the film, but his character just didn’t do it for me. In my opinion, this role would have been better suited by a Philip Seymour Hoffman or Leonardo DiCaprio – with the right make up, they could have both easily pulled it off. Even though I understand it was the Langella / Sheen tandem that played the lead roles in the Frost/Nixon plays, Sheen just did not feel right for this. That being said, they could have cut out many of his “playboy” type scenes, and just honed in on the interviews themselves, but then you’d ask why would we need to see the film, and not just watch the interviews? I don’t have a good answer to this question.

Frost/Nixon was a let down in my book. Worth seeing, for certain, but you too may feel some of the wind knocked out of your sails when you get through it. It is a pity because there was the potential for greatness here, and it just felt like it bottomed out. The final point that I will bring up are the character interviews throughout the film. Occasionally there would be a cut scene where one of the characters in the film would fill in some gaps that the movie left out, but they didn’t use the real people from the event, they used the actors (in character) from the film. Why didn’t they use the actual people from the event? The people in these interviews were the people from the Frost corner, and they are all still alive – including Frost. Certainly it would be more expensive, but with this caliber of film you either go big or you go home.