Low-key SciFi seems to be the “in” thing lately but unlike Looper, Robot & Frank is a more light-hearted story set in the near future. It’s always great to see a movie made for adults too.
What I reveal here is covered in the trailers and probably in other reviews so you can’t say I’m spoiling anything.
Frank is a retired ex-cat burglar living alone in upstate New York. Every week his son Hunter drives five hours each way to check in, have dinner and make sure Frank is alright. Lately Frank’s Alzheimer’s disease is worsening plus it’s taking its toll on Hunter. Since they live in the near future, problem solved! Hunter presents his father with a robot assistant. The robot is a nurse, a maid, a cook and a full-time nag; it puts Frank on a regimen which is actually important to do with Alzheimer’s sufferers.
Meanwhile, the town’s library that Frank likes to patronize is being “re-imagined.” All the physical books will be removed and digitized. The building will remain to recreate a virtual experience while providing the content by other means. The librarian Jennifer, who Frank has a crush on, gets to keep her job in this rather jarring transformation.What Frank cannot stand is the primary and incredibly smug director of the project, a consultant named Jake. The animosity starts right away with Jake’s haughty tone; calls Frank an old timer and a connection to the analog past. Jake reminded me of all these snide puds pushing for digital everything, never mind how it puts our civilization at risk with one big fat EMP burst destroying all the information we’ve accumulated. Still, Jennifer likes Frank and asks him to be her date for the snooty fundraiser. During this soiree Frank notices all the jewelry the women wear. The gears in his mind start turning and with his robot’s assistance, he may pull off his best and final score.
I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. It’s definitely in my top five for 2012. Frank Langella’s performance as a cranky guy was priceless, especially when he curses at the robot or teaches it hilarious tricks. Liv Tyler appears as his daughter and thankfully she doesn’t ruin things with her mediocre acting. I think she can naturally act as a daughter with an embarrassing, aging father. Those couple Aerosmith records? Ugh! The little touches in the background were great: Jennifer’s aging Prius, cell phones being just sheets of plastic, video-screen phones, etc. They’re subtle changes to how we live today and plausible.
Stick around after the ending. The film makers show a string of demonstrations of what today’s robots can do while rolling the credits. There’s one capable of riding a bike! Another could fling and catch a cell phone like a human.
We caught this at Austin’s northern art-house theater, the Regal Great Hills 8. It’s no Alamo yet the experience was pleasant. There were just four people, including ourselves, attending. The commercials were a little jarring after being spoiled all Summer.