This past weekend I went to the Sundance Theater that has been built up on Sunset Blvd. That place is ten times better looking than it used to be. Me and Miss E had to get away from this Africa like heat and saw Robot & Frank. This turned out to be a very good decision. Some of these smaller films, like Beasts of the Southern Wild, have been some of my favorite movies of the year. The night before I saw this movie I had heard a review and it sounded really interesting so I gave it a go.
This movie is set “in the near future” and is about this old man named Frank played by Frank Langella who is starting to get worse with his mind. He forgets things and his temper jumps all over the place. Oh, and he is a thief. Not just because he is old, because we all know old folks steal, but because he used to be an actual thief. His lifestyle caused him to go to prison a few times for years and he missed out on a lot of his children’s lives. His son Hunter played by James Marsden gets sick of spending so much of his time visiting his father so he gets him a robot caretaker.
Frank is a crotchety old man and hates the robot who he refuses to name. The robot wakes Frank up and makes him a healthy breakfast and tries to keep him on a set routine to help him mentally. Frank continues to dislike the robot until it steals something from a gift shop Frank steals from weekly on his way to the library. A librarian that Frank seems to like talks to Frank and shows him a Don Quixote book that is worth a lot and will soon be the last of the actual books in the library. So of course Frank begins to teach the robot how to pick locks so they can steal it.
Frank’s other child Madison played by Liv Tyler spends her time traveling across the world and checks in on him every week via internet picture phone. He tells her he hates the robot but tells his son something different. This leads to Madison just showing up and turning the robot off since she knows the secret password. Madison is against robots but sneaks and has it clean when her father begins to slip back into dementia. She turns it back on and moves back out and Frank starts to scope out the home of this dick who is changing the library.
Frank and the robot end up stealing the book successfully as well as some jewels from the dicks home. He knows that Frank used to be a thief and gets the cops involved. They show up at the house and the policeman is like “Oh, this is a waste of time…” but after Frank starts acting suspicious and runs away they wait for him to return home. The robot tells Frank that if he wipes its memory that Frank will not have to be arrested. Frank does not want to as he now feels that the robot is his only friend.
I wont give away the ending but this film was just amazing. I wanted Frank to get better and start to be a real father to his kids, especially his son. I wanted the robot to continue being the way it was. I wanted the jerk who controlled the library to get slapped by someone. Everyone was just great in this. And the fact that it was in the future but not too far ahead made this seem like a story that could happen less than ten years from now. If this is playing anywhere near you please see it. Its one of those films that makes you remember why you enjoy movies so much.
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