Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon,” based on the Tony award-winning stage production of the same name, tells the story of a series of famous interviews conducted between British TV personality David Frost and former President Richard Nixon in 1977. While Nixon hopes to use positive publicity from the interviews to inch his way back into politics, Frost sees the dialogues as an opportunity to springboard his career as a talk show host and interviewer, which has hit a bit of a doldrums (in the form of exile to a *gasp* Australian show). Soon, however, the interviews are much more than an economic enterprise; the battle becomes not over dollars but the very reputation of the Nixon presidency.

“Frost/Nixon” makes the transition from stage to screen smoothly, even if Howard’s directing is fairly bland. At particularly dramatic moments the camera zooms in and out of focus, perhaps to give the film more of a documentary feel, though I felt the device was overused. Otherwise, Howard realizes this is a character-driven story, letting his actors strut their stuff.

Michael Sheen is wonderful as the ever-grinning, in-over-his-head David Frost, and Oliver Platt and Sam Rockwell are delightfully entertaining as a pair of journalists Frost hires to help him prepare for the interviews. But it is Frank Langella’s portrayal of Richard Nixon that steals the show. Though Langella bears little physical resemblance to the disgraced President, he so perfectly captures Nixon’s mannerisms (slumped shoulders, distinctive manner of speech) that by the end of the film you may have difficulty remembering what Tricky Dick actually looked like.

Overall, “Frost/Nixon” is a streamlined and charming look at a lesser-known chapter of the Watergate saga. If it has any major flaw, it is an inflated sense of the importance of the events depicted. Frost was not the lightweight interviewer the film at times makes him out to be, and Nixon’s political career was over long before 1977, no matter how “presidential” he could’ve looked in those interviews. Nixon’s presidency has been too well-discussed over the past three decades for its reputation to hinge on a single series of interviews. As long as you’re willing to accept a bit of Hollywood historical exaggeration, “Frost/Nixon” is an entertaining drama featuring an absolute must-see performance.