The movie Robot & Frank is one of those movies that I stumbled upon one day while I was flipping through the channels and heard about it on the movie trailer show some time in the Summer of 2012. Robot and Frank was at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 and that might have been where I had first heard about it, but either way I got around to watching it finally as it currently is on Netflix. Frank Langella gives a great performance as Frank a retired jewel thief.
Robot & Frank is set in the near future and it is a cool society in which they live in. In the film Frank is given a Robot health companion by his son to look after Frank who lives alone and has been experiencing serious mental problems including dementia. At first Frank doesn’t like the Robot but over time it grows on him and soon Frank begins to think of the robot as human. As Frank teaches the robot to pick lock and eventually Frank has an assistant to help in heists. Over time they rob the library which is being turned into community center as no one is using the library with the decline of print media and the jewels from a wealthy guy, the SOB who was instrumental in the renovation., Frank and the Robot case his home and eventually rob it.
This film is a nice reflection on aging, and it gives a reasonable look at the future of robotic as health care companions. One of the most remarkable thing is that it is the first film of both the director, Jake Schreier and the writer, Christopher Ford, and the film has remarkable polish on it. Frank Langella brings the robot to life and make the audience care about it. This is a wonderful little indie movie and it brings up some valid questions about how we look at ageing and the role of robots in our lives.
Related articles
- Film Review: ‘Robot & Frank’ (geekbloggeruk.wordpress.com)
- Frank Langella: legend of the fall (theguardian.com)
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