Who says movies set in the future have to be bleak, dystopian killjoys? Robot & Frank is the antithesis of those films, an unconventional and quirky crowd-pleaser of a buddy comedy that makes some heavy points without being heavy handed.
It helps that Frank Langella is in the lead as Frank, a grumpy and tired old man slowly wasting away on his own in an otherwise empty house. His wife left him thirty years ago, and Frank only has the bare minimum of contact with his two kids(James Marsden and Liv Tyler), who are on totally opposite ends of the political divide regarding human/robot relations. In this case, it's Frank's son who buys him a new robot out of concern for his worsening memory loss. Frank's daughter disagrees, but since she's traveling the world on some sort of humanitarian mission she's hardly in a position to argue.
A Luddite of epic proportions, Frank despises Robot from the moment its powered on. He swears the "death machine" will murder him in his sleep, and argues with it over his Captain Crunch breakfasts and lack of motivation. Frank welcomes his freedom, his long walks to the library to visit with Jennifer(Susan Sarandon), the librarian who watches over the increasingly marginalized books as they are replaced by a digitized "library experience". Frank watches the world changing around him, one of the old guard left behind in evolution's wake, and he doesn't like it one bit.
It's one thing to watch the world leave him behind, but Frank won't stand for it in his home as Robot cooks, cleans, and looks out for his general well-being. None of this pleases him, not the attempted hobbies to keep Frank's mind occupied, not even the lavish meals Robot prepares. It's not until Frank discovers that his mechanized pal could be the perfect accomplice to commit a little grand theft that he starts to warm up. At the height of his career, Frank was a cat burglar of some renown, and he sees Robot as a chance to get back into the game and strike back at the society he feels has gotten too smug for its own good.
Thus begins the strangest heist movie ever as cranky old Frank and Robot painstakingly case their eventual targets, with the old guy finding a new twinkle in his at the thought of his latest caper, along the way forging a bond with the Robot that would have been previously unimaginable.Christopher D. Ford's script juggles some weighty issues, like Frank's worsening Alzheimer's and spotty parenting skills, with humorous banter between the old guy and his Robot companion, making for a delightful sci-fi take on The Odd Couple. Ford, who based the film on his his student short film, has something to say about our continuing reliance on technology and how it softens us in a way most don't quite grasp, but he never lets the message become a burden on what is generally an easy going charmer of a film. Jake Schreier's direction lacks a noticeable fingerprint, but is serviceable for such a low wattage indie.
Langella is the key, however, and he's so good it'll be a crime if he's not at the top of the list for Best Actor, even at this early stage of the year. Langella has been so good for so long that he's become someone we take for granted. With a movie as strong as this, Langella is virtually untouchable, capable of saying more with a simple look than most can with their entire bodies. He makes Frank's budding friendship with Robot utterly believable every step of the way.Langella ups his game even further when opposite Sarandon, and the two have an ease about them that comes only with experience. Peter Sarsgaard voices Robot, imbuing him with just enough humanity to make you wonder if perhaps there's more going on in those circuits than meets the eye.
Sony Pictures may have made the steal of the year by picking up the rights to the film after it proved to be one of Sundance's biggest successes. They might just have a hit on their hands, the type that should make a lot of noise come this awards season.
