Director: Jake Schreier
Starring: Frank Langella, Peter Sarsgaard, Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler
Running Time: 89 Minutes
Certificate: 12
Synopsis: In the near future, an ex-jewel thief receives a gift from his son: a robot butler programmed to look after him. But soon the two companions try their luck as a heist team.
ROBOT & FRANK sets us forward a little into the future, where Frank (Frank Langella) is an ex-cat burglar but now much older and struggling to look after himself. His two older children are worried about him, which leads his son Hunter (James Marsden) to buy him a robot to tend to his needs. However, as you’d expect, Frank isn’t exactly forthcoming with support for his new robot helper, in fact – he bloody hates it but when the robot steals something for him in a local shop – where he often causes trouble – ideas being to spark in Frank’s head for a future plan.
Written by Christopher D. Ford and Directed by Jake Schreier, this is both their first time feature and it’s full of charm, quick wit and inventiveness. This is an exceptionally well-developed character piece and at the centre of everything is a tight, clever narrative that’s wound around a satirical piece on modern society and how it has lost the ability to let people just be people. There are also nods towards technological advances and how they impact on our lives, as Frank’s daughter Madison (Liv Tyler) fights to keep tech and the robot out of her father’s life, but it also highlights her inane inability to do the basic tasks, as she flutters around like a free spirit, played delicately by the beautiful Tyler.
The ensemble cast impresses throughout and proves that with a good story, a film can excel at any level. Joining the brilliant Langella is Susan Sarandon as the library worker Jennifer who’s library is being taken over by a modern clique whose job is it to invent a new ‘experience’ of a library, rather than allowing people to actually stay there and read books. It reeks of a brilliant depiction on hipster culture and modern art colliding, and subtly highlights the ridiculous nature of it all.
ROBOT & FRANK is a smart heist movie with a twist because it’s equally a quirky and moving indie drama. Underneath, it is also a subtle, yet effective and intelligent nod towards aging and the speed of the modern world as it touches on the question of age, our physical mind and how they switch on and off as we grow older and how – maybe – everyone wished they had a reset every now and then. Utterly charming and quite, quite brilliant, go see it.
ROBOT & FRANK is released in the UK on 8th March.
