Former President Richard Milhous Nixon (Philip Baker Hall) is alone in his study talking into a tape recorder. He has his closed-circuit TV setup, his drinks and a gun. He talks to and about the portraits on the walls. His rants are rambling as he reflects on his life and what has happened to it.
I'm not a fan of one-person plays that get transferred to the big screen. It starts from a deficit where it doesn't have the danger and the immediacy of a live show no matter who's doing it. The other problem is that this is a fictional account. It tells the audience right away that this is all fake. It's like an alternate universe and it's hard to say how much truth can be gleamed from this movie. Robert Altman can't do much more than point and shoot in this film. PBH is a great actor and I have great praises for his work. It's an interesting film to see him act but it's not much more than that. I rather have a well researched documentary about Nixon.
I'm not a fan of one-person plays that get transferred to the big screen. It starts from a deficit where it doesn't have the danger and the immediacy of a live show no matter who's doing it. The other problem is that this is a fictional account. It tells the audience right away that this is all fake. It's like an alternate universe and it's hard to say how much truth can be gleamed from this movie. Robert Altman can't do much more than point and shoot in this film. PBH is a great actor and I have great praises for his work. It's an interesting film to see him act but it's not much more than that. I rather have a well researched documentary about Nixon.