Starring: Frank Langella, Peter Sarsgaard, Susan Sarandon
Frank (Langella) lives alone and is losing his memory in his
old age. As a result, his son, Hunter (James Marsden) provides his father with
a robot (voiced by Sarsgaard) to help Frank remain healthy. Although at first
Frank resents the robot, he eventually learns to accept him, especially when he
finds the robot can be useful in helping Frank revive his activities as a cat
burgler.
A dignified performance by Frank Langella and a strong (though
not wholly original) concept help Robot & Frank be an entertaining picture,
but it’s not much more than that. Although a science-fiction film in a fashion,
Robot & Frank emphasises the human drama but, other than Langella, the
performances are either okay or slightly disappointing, whilst the story has
larger problems, especially towards the end. A closing act revelation is made
blatantly obvious since literally the opening seconds of the film and in at
least one instance, a montage of supposedly happy moments was underpinned with
sterile white sets and costumes with choral classical music that put me in mind
of the rather dark dystopia of THX-1138 (1971). Also, it’s hard to really feel
much affection for the robot. His cool monotone is reminiscent of the sinister
computer, HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and isn’t the most lovable of
machines; not to mention, a key plot point is that he has no real understanding
of law, which is odd considering that would seem like knowledge of laws would
be fairly programmable. However, the film is charming and ambles along at a
nice enough pace if you don’t let the multiple minor flaws get to you.
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