Robot and Frank (2012)

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Robot & Frank (2012)

7/10

Starring

Frank Langella

Susan Sarandon

James Marsden

Liv Tyler

Directed by Jake Schreier

The best word to use to describe this movie will be Sweet. Robot & Frank is a beautiful drama that shows the pending attachment we humans will tend to have to technological gadgets and it takes a charming yet sad look at the effects of aging. Exploring in depth human interaction with technology, Robot & Frank is a movie with no true moral undertone, just writer Christopher D. Ford and director Jake Schreier idea of what the future will be like when technology will be close and interwoven with our survival.

The script is one that I have to applaud as totally original and the movie drifts at such a steady playful pace that its twists and turns are not easily missed as they kind of jump at you making you smile, and for this I give credit to the debutant director Schreier and debutant movie writer Ford. Shot in like 20 days the movie was done on a 2.5 million budget and the robot suit was worn by an actor.

The movie plot is about a cat burglar named Frank (Frank Langella) who has become old and out of the game, he does once in a while do some petty shoplifting but his age and his dementia (memory loss) was not helping at all, so for that reason his son Hunter (James Marsden) drives to see him once every week.

Hunter is finding it difficult to cope with the long drive to see his father and his sister Madison (Liv Tyler) is always away on trips, so he gets Frank a robot which has been pre-programmed with all of Frank’s details to help out in taking good care of Frank. The robot first started out as an enemy of a better stress free life for Frank (although his life style was leading him to an earlier grave and was not making his memory loss better), but soon the robot became Frank’s best friend and Frank thought it all he knew and together they became a close pair, till some theft started to happen in the area.

The movie does posses some twist as said before, twists that you will not expect, but they are carefully placed in between the plots. The acting in the case of Frank which was played by Frank Langella is one that deserves recognition, as the movie is not overshadowed with action or intense CGI graphics the actors had to stand out in their roles and from the beginning of the movie Frank’s acting draws you in and gives you the confidence that this is going to be a good movie. Also James Marsden (who plays Frank’s protective and caring son Hunter) did well in his role as a supporting actor.

Robot and Frank is very well out on DVD and I do advise all to take the time to see this drama of how an old man befriends a robot.