Stranger-than-fiction visit fuels kingsize yarn
O
Elvis & Nixon Cert 12A. Released on Friday.
N December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley was given an audience with President Richard Nixon in the Oval Office. The moment was captured by White House photographer Ollie Atkins and would go on to become the most requested image in the history of the US National Archives.
The idea of the two not-quite-human icons meeting under a preposterous pretence — Elvis wanted a drugsbureau badge to add to his collection of lawenforcement insignias — proved irresistible to writers Joey and Hanala Sagal, and Cary Elwes.
If the whole thing didn’t feel quirky enough, online retail giant Amazon made it its first ever film distribution acquisition.
This slightly strangerthan-fiction aura fuels this knock-kneed yarn from US filmmaker Liza Johnson that combines elements of buddy movie and absurdist comedy.
Michael Shannon (Man of Steel) is not the most obvious choice to depict the King of Rock’n’Roll. But verisimilitude is not the name of Johnson’s game, and more depth and humour is mined by Shannon’s caricature of the star — more “Elvis impersonator” than “impersonating Elvis”— this way.
Playing his opposite number is Kevin Spacey who is superbly arch as the hunched bogeyman of the era. When the third act finally brings them together, the summit is so cartoonish and farceedged it could only have been gleaned from actual accounts. Elvis shows off his karate and ignores the protocol spelled out by hovering staffer (and future Watergate culprit) Egil Krogh (a lovely turn by Colin Hanks). Nixon, meanwhile, plays ball, growling in agreement with this gun-loving, Beatleshating alien life-form who might just be able to bolster his image with the youth vote.
Elvis’s relationship with his aide and childhood friend Jerry Schilling (Alex Pettyfer) provides the emotional core to a film that would otherwise irk with its studied eccentricity. Jerry pulls his hair out at The King’s dotty demands but there is a steadfast mutual reliance there, one Johnson could have explored further.
A flawed curio, then, but don’t be surprised if the years grant it cult-classic status.