*** 1/2 out of *****
Running time: 90 minutes
MPAA rating: PG-13 for some language
Frank Langella, a powerhouse actor on stage, has rarely been given the opportunity to play a sympathetic lead in the movies. But in Robot & Frank he displays his polished comedic and dramatic skills to great effect in a winning, touching, slightly futuristic comedy/drama.
Working with first-time director Jake Schreier, Langella portrays Frank, an elderly former cat burglar whose spirit is intact after serving two terms in prison. Frank seems content to live out his life in a remote upstate New York cottage, although his mental faculties are gradually diminishing and his homemaking skills are less than stellar. But his son, played with a nuanced mix of devotion and alienation by James Marsden (Enchanted, Straw Dogs), is unwilling to relegate the old jewel thief to a life of senility in the old age home without making an effort to bring him back from the precipice of dementia.
To this end, the son gives his dad a robot home health care aide. A compact, humanoid-shaped machine, the robot is the shut-in’s dream. It cooks healthy meals, cleans the house, shops for food and household supplies, creates and tends its own garden, can carry on a decent conversation, and generally takes care of its charge with all the consideration and patience of the best possible human nurse/companion/housekeeper/cook and bottle washer.
The old burglar is appalled at first, and refuses to be a cooperative patient. But once he finds that the robot has not been programmed to be an enforcer of civil laws, a compromise is struck between man and machine which serves both of their purposes. Frank will behave cordially, eat his no-salt, low fat, vegetarian meals, and sleep and awaken on the robot’s programmed schedule, while the robot will learn the cat burglar’s trade.
