Unbelievably my two glasses of wine drinking binge on Monday led to a two day hangover. I slept in til after midday and yet still felt crap and got nothing done. Or maybe my brain has just had enough and snuck out my ear and gone to find a less self-destructive body (though brain, I think you have to take some of the responsibility - you're in charge here. Or at least second in command to my cock). Because nothing was going on upstairs. In fact I spent most of they day thinking it was Monday for some reason. I was planning to go to the cinema and my girlfriend is on Orange. An advert came on for Orange Wednesdays 2 for 1 deal, which we forgot about last time we were at the cinema. "Damn," I thought to myself, "Shame we're going to the cinema on Monday. Ah well."
It wasn't until we had been in the queue for five minutes and were two from the front that I realised my mistake, saving us £11.50 (I know, West End cinema prices are ridiculous). Just in time, but I am clearly in the suburbs of senile dementia as well as alcohol intolerance.
Still, I got to see
Frost/Nixon which partly made up for my otherwise wasted day. Michael Sheen was awesome, both in this and the trailer for
The Damned United. I think he should have a go at Steve Coogan next. He'd definitely be able to do him. There were certainly moments where Frost reminded me of him.
The real genius in this film comes from writer Peter Morgan spotting this as a hugely dramatic meeting of men and a turning point in both their lives. Frost is just as fascinating a character as Nixon, maybe moreso, and despite being vain, ambitious, occasionally vacuous and driven by the love of fame and its fripperies, comes across as oddly likeable. But maybe my reaction to him is coloured by the knowledge that he would end up presenting "Through the Keyhole", something Nixon would never have contemplated even in his darkest moments.
I have met a couple of people like Frost in my time in this business - slightly ruthless, often with less talent than their contemporaries, but with something that is driving them onwards at the expense of all else, meaning they go on to greater things. It's often said that Frost was very influenced by Peter Cook, who was clearly a greater creative force and yet it is Frost who conquered the world. Cook didn't have the drive or the ambition or after the early burst of success the inclination to do what Frost did.
In a sense Cook is the John the Baptist to Frost's Jesus (and not just because Cook made the mistake of rescuing a drowning Frost in a swimming pool). It seems likely that John the Baptist was the greater and more revered religious figure at the time (he certainly gets more column inches in Josephus' history) and that Jesus was very influenced by him. Yet the spin merchants and PR gurus behind Christ managed to relegate the Baptist to being merely a harbinger of the Messiah, in awe of his protege and it's the rather more palatable version of religion that spread through the world. The Baptist, whilst not forgotten, has none of the kudos given to his derivative disciple.
Anyway it's a great film - I didn't see the play so am not going to show off like the people who did and claim that the film isn't as good, it works really well as a movie.
I am in awe of Michael Sheen. He may be my new
John Simm. Let's hope I never meet him.
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