Movie Review: ROBOT & FRANK

A movie about self-conscious robot assassins in the mode of the Terminator movies probably makes for a sexier tagline than one that could be potentially pitched as essentially about a version of Rosie from The Jetsons cartoon. But that's one of the many charms of the endearing debut from director Jake Schreier, Robot & Frank.

Set in the near future, Frank (Frank Langella) is a senior living alone in a cozy town in upstate New York and suffering from the beginning stages of dementia. His son, Hunter (James Marsden) makes regular trips to visit and care for his father, but the long drive takes more time and energy than he cares to exert. So he purchases for Frank a new robot servant, who will clean his house, cook his meals, and perform any number of other duties and errands.

Needless to say Frank doesn't like it and the Robot goes about its business while the curmudgeon he's been brought to help watches in disapproval. His domestic life isn't the only place where Frank is trying to outrun change. One of his favorite stops is the local library, staffed by only one librarian, Jennifer (Susan Sarandon) and a shelving robot named Mr. Darcy. The library itself is undergoing a pretty substantial makeover, as Jake--a young, rich entrepreneur--is looking to renovate the building as more of a community center than a locus of cultural and intellectual resources.

But when Frank discovers that the Robot will do anything he instructs him to do (and also realizes that it doesn't have the facility for morality), their relationship as well as the movie take a unexpected, yet thoroughly engaging turn. Frank, it turns out, spent much of his younger days as a thief (which also does much to explain his strained relationship with his son) and figures out that the Robot can learn to pick any lock at a much faster rate than any human partner could.

Their first job is the library as Frank intends to steal a rare version of Don Quixote for Jennifer, who he clearly has a crush on. But that's only a primer for the big heist, Jake's house--full of his wife's jewels--and a good portion of the middle of the film sees the two casing that next location.

Though the Robot is voiced by Peter Sarsgaard, Langella is really working alone for a good amount of the movie and it's a testament to his performance how affecting their relationship comes across on screen. So when his daughter Madison (Liv Tyler) comes to take care of him and insists on shutting the Robot off, we believe him when he begs her to turn him back on and says it's because "He's my friend."

After the heist at Jake's house, a local detective becomes suspicious and watches the two closely. The Robot simply suggests Frank wipe his hard drive clean and with it most of the evidence. Memory, obviously, is a major theme here. And while his friendship with the Robot is enough of a reason for Frank not to erase his memory, it's his own slowly fading one he's really trying to preserve. The Robot is not only a tool he uses for these heists, but also an attempt at recapturing his own (troubled) past. In ways the narrative will reveal (and I won't) later in the film, that works in more ways than one--literally jarring his forgotten memories into focus.

The movie is shot digitally, but with a muted palette and film-like grain, which adds to the naturalistic approach. By also setting the story in the near future, the movie cleverly allows its characters to be slightly bemused by the existence of robots in everyday life, but not to the extent that they've become invasive and ubiquitous. That is to say, it is a very real and familiar world. The science fiction conceit is merely an avenue into a simply human story. To further extrapolate, this use of the digital camera to mimic the look and feel of traditional film stock mirrors the Robot's function in Frank's life. The Robot, an apparatus representing change, is used to preserve memory and history.

In the end though, it's really simply the story of a lonely old man coming to terms with his own past and the promise of a future not written by a disease. But most importantly, what the Robot gave Frank wasn't a gift, it was merely a present.


Robot & Frank opens September 28 at the Enzian.