Michael Shannon and Kevin Spacey star, respectively, in the film Elvis & Nixon (directed by Liza Johnson), which tells the bizarre true story of when Elvis Presley turned up to the White House out of the blue requesting to meet President Nixon as “a matter of national security”. The lead roles are well performed and humorous, yet the film lacks depth and focus, missing out on what could have been a great exploration of two very different American icons meeting at the height of their fame.
Michael Shannon navigates very well as Elvis Presley through the first half of the film, of which is essentially a montage of reaction shots, with woman and White House officials gasping “oh my God it’s Elvis!”, which is a joke that soon wears thin. After a repetitive and drawn out first act of Elvis sauntering around Washington, and White House officials scrambling to convince Nixon to meet The King, we finally have it; Elvis is in the building.
The famous picture of Elvis meeting Nixon.
The leads expertly perform their characters, with the awkward, hunched shouldered Nixon affectionately played by Spacey and Shannon delivering a somewhat lost and delusional yet charismatic and unpredictable rock star, and the meeting of the two has some very funny awkward fumbles and conflicts of power and masculinity. However, with too many badly landed gags (not to forget the presence of Johnny Knoxville in a bad 70s wig) the climax of the film soon starts to resemble a bad Saturday Night Live sketch, which is a shame because with Spacey and Shannon’s chemistry it could have been great.
Elvis & Nixon had everything it needed in its performances to be a much better film, yet it lacked good comic timing and, most predominately, direction and focus. It’s hard to tell if the film is about either the historical meeting of two American icons, a clearly unstable Elvis dealing with his fame or the effect that this fame has on the people in his life. Whilst some scenes scratch the surface of these subjects (the most memorable being a touching moment in which Elvis speaks of his twin brother who died at birth, exploring for a second the complexity of Elvis’ character) they usually end with just the one scene and aren’t followed through with enough commitment. This results in a patchy narrative, held together at the seams by the film’s leads who’s strong performances are not supported with enough weight behind the thinly penned script. The nostalgic sets, costumes, and music may be evocative to an older audience who remember the era best, but for a younger audience a lot of what could have been a much better film will probably wash over them.
Very cool, S x.
Reviews written by Stefan Filby at Dudes Have No Choice.
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