ROBOT & FRANK

The opening scenes show a cat burglar breaking into
a house in the middle of a night, and as he scans the room with his flashlight
he spies a photograph which he picks up to examine before he drops it and it
smashes on the ground.  Frank has broken
into his own house and the photo is of him and his family. It takes us a while
to realize the significance of this mistake as in the same manner that Frank slowly realizes that he is
losing the plot along with his mind. 
Hunter his married son cares enough to want to help his difficult elderly
father but as he is such a cantankerous old sod and just abuses Hunter every
time he visits him, his solution is to get the old man a futuristic robot
to be both his caregiver and minder.

Frank hates the idea of the Robot and initially completely
resists being forced to take him in until Hunter issues him with an ultimatum. Frank’s
crankiness keeps everyone at bay in this small country town except Jennifer the
local librarian who for some reason doesn’t mind his clumsy passes. A rather
smug and obnoxious Consultant has persuaded the Library Board to phase out
having actual books (the movie is set in ‘the near future’) and at a Cocktail
Party he patronizingly talks down to Frank and Jennifer to tell them that
their futures … as oldies … will be phased out too. This is just enough to spur
Frank back into his old criminal ways especially after espying the Consultant’s
wife and her chums sporting some very serious jewelry, and so he sets out to rob them

He programmes the Robot to become his new accomplice
and together they successfully stage a few break ins and soon collect a small stash of gems.

As Frank is nowhere as sharp as he was it is  sadly destined to fail and the plot takes on a
funny farcical turn when it is clear to the local Police that Frank and Robot are
responsible for this new crime wave and they move into make their arrests.

This is a delightful and odd wee caper movie with its
quirky wee story that has a couple of very surprising twists that I would defy
anyone to predict.  It’s success however is
totally due to the masterful and superlative understated performance by Frank
Langella as Frank who made the relationship between him and the Robot so
completely convincing. They make such an odd couple!

Written and directed by a couple of new filmmakers Christopher
D Ford and Jack Schreyer, it reminded me a little of Sarah Polley’s excellent directing
debut ‘Away From Her’.  And with her protagonist
Fiona you could never tell if her behavior was a result of her Alzheimer’s, or if she was using that as a cover to create some mischief.  Just like Frank.  Great fun : go see.


★★★★★★★★