Tagline:
Friendship doesn’t have an off switch.

Wide Release Date:
August 24, 2012

Directed by:
Jake Schreier
Written by:
Christopher D. Ford
Produced by:
Lance Acord, Sam Bisbee, Jackie Kelman-Bisbee, Galt Niederhoffer

Starring:
Frank Langella
Susan Sarandon
Peter Sarsgaard
James Marsden
Liv Tyler

PREGAME THOUGHTS

My parents have been begging me to watch Robot & Frank for years. Every time they talk about new movies they’ve seen, they always turn to me with that glint in their eyes and go “Have you seen Robot & Frank yet???”

Well, this time I get to give them a wry smirk, kick my feet up on my desk, stick my thumbs under my suspenders, and tell him with full confidence “uh huh”.

I’m expecting something fluffy and heartwarming based on that sunny yellow poster with the old guy and the robot staring at each other. Friendship doesn’t have an off switch! That is, unless you become friends with me. My off switch is easy to access.

THE 450(ish)-WORD SYNOPSIS

The year is 2031 or 2058 or 3010. It’s somewhere in the future. Not too far in the future though, just far enough to have robot companions, large television-sized FaceTime screens, paper-thin telephones, and James Marsden! He plays Hunter, the titular Frank’s (Frank Langella) often exasperated son. You see, Frank has been losing his marbles lately and Hunter is tired of showing up to his cranky father’s house on a very regular basis to make sure he’s ok. And since he doesn’t want to put the old guy in a home, he buys him an incredibly expensive robot to take care of him and his increasingly cluttered and filthy house. The robot’s name is Robot (voiced by Peter Saarsgard).

“Thank you for taking me into your home, Frank. Whatever gets me away from James Marsden, please.”

Frank is unwilling at first to accept this robot companion. He complains and bitches and maintains a disposition of rudeness toward the automaton while it happily tends to his chores, provides assistance to Frank’s physical and mental health, and gifts him with various off-screen happy endings, I’m guessing. Frank changes his tune once he realizes that Robot, inherently, has no moral compass. Frank takes advantage of this by focusing his allotted recreational time on teaching Robot how to pick locks and involving him in some semi-nefarious heists! The local library is being renovated into a community center, much to librarian Jennifer (Susan Sarandon) and Frank’s distaste. Frank wrangles Robot into stealing a first edition copy of Don Quixote from the library as a gift for Jennifer.

Frank’s daughter, Maddie (Liv Tyler), is a philanthropist who finds robot servants morally reprehensible. She shows up to Frank’s house for few days to help out instead of the robot after having successfully put it in sleep mode. Frank, having warmed up to the companion, protests and acts out. Eventually, after Maddie admits to secretly booting up the robot to help overnight when the housework becomes too overwhelming, she concedes.

“Are you sure that the robot isn’t staring at us back there? I have a feeling that the robot is staring at us back there.”

Once he gets his robot back, he seeks revenge against the developer of the community center, Jake, by breaking into his home and stealing some of his wife’s expensive jewelry. It works, but Jake knows Frank did it even without proof. The police get involved and show up repeatedly, but Frank’s stays COOL AS A CUCUMBER. In order to cover his tracks, Frank mulls over whether or not to wipe Robot’s memory.

Frank’s own memory keeps getting worse and worse. Back at the library, Frank sees old photos of him and Jennifer that confirm that she is his ex-wife, but he doesn’t remember any of it. Robot convinces Frank to wipe his memory, arguing that he merely exists to serve and wiping his memory would serve him best. Frank agrees to move into an assisted care facility. While his family visits, he writes a note to Hunter telling him that the jewels are buried in the backyard.

TOM’S DISCUSSION CORNER

TOPIC 1 — Havin’ a Robot Buddy

How much would that rule? My house would be clean and I wouldn’t have the crippling social anxiety that comes from another actual person in my house. Everyone wins, especially the robot.

“I ain’t the spring chicken that I used to be, but I’ll still be able to snap that robot arm off like a twig.”

People are always afraid of their jobs being replaced with robots, but I welcome that with open arms. I’d send the fucking robot to the office every morning. Let him write reports and read specifications and look through microscopes and pour acid all over his fragile appendages. I’ll stay home, catch up on episodes of Weeds, and eat all sorts of delicious Lunchables. I will still be the one who will collect all the paychecks, and I’ll probably be the defendant in the landmark lawsuit Tom v. Robot wherein I’ll owe thousands of dollars to cover all the money I had wrongfully stolen. The jury’s verdict will be “Guilty. The Robot is sentient, maybe.”

Obviously, the best moments of the movie are Frank’s belligerent attitude with getting used to the robot, lashing out at the poor thing unfairly at every turn. I also appreciated the irony of Frank being passive-aggressive and difficult with James Marsden about accepting and keeping the robot, then he was passive-aggressive and difficult with Liv Tyler about getting rid of the robot. It’s nice that they became fast friends! Especially after all that lockpicking.

TOPIC 2 — Havin’ Dementia

If you’re unlucky, you’ll forget you’ll even have a robot buddy every single morning you wake up for the rest of your ancient, degrading life. That’s dementia, baby.

“I definitely don’t remember replacing the couch with large, uncomfortable,  polished balls.”

Dementia runs in my family, along with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, narcissism, and charming good looks! You can explain my entire blog-writing behavior through these disorders, I assure you. I often wonder if I will be succumbing to the deteriorating of my mushy little brain by the time I’m in my 70s, scrambling to remember the name of my two grandchild, Igor and Nermal. Forced to watch reruns of television shows I barely liked from the 1990s because my awful children will just park my degenerate ass in an uncomfortable rocking chair and leave me drooling and scrambling fiercely in a miserable straitjacket!

Frank is not afforded this awful existence, but he is certainly losing his marbles. Parallels are drawn between Frank’s faltering memory and his ability to wipe Robot’s memory to destroy evidence. He feels bad for his “friend” and realizes that his own family wouldn’t want to see Frank go the same way. Good to see that, in the end, Robot helped Frank even more than he could have ever predicted.

Don’t put me in an assisted living facility when I start going braindead. Just kill me. We’d all be much happier.

“Hey, can you get Fortnite on this thing?”

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

Throughout the entire film, only once is the robot referred to by anything other than ‘Robot’. At approx 36:25 in the movie Mr. Darcy refers to “Robot” as VGC-60L.
Hey, that’s my license plate!

The vehicle that passes Frank when he is walking down the road is an available production car, a Tango by Commuter Cars. There are only twelve in existence, with a retail price of $240,000 each.
Can you imagine smashing one of those bad boys up with a fucking baseball bat? I’m getting chills just thinking about the catharsis.

Inspired a Malayalam language (Indian) movie named “Android Kunjappan”
Ahh, there’s always a fine line between “inspired” and “lead to complete ripoff”. I gotta watch me this Android Kunjappan, or as I like to call it, “Android Kunjappan & Frank”.

The framed photograph Frank drops in the opening scene is an actual shot of Langella and his two children, Frank III and Sarah.
I knew a Frank III. He was much better than his brothers Frank IV and Frank VI. Frank V died in a dinosaur attack.

“I see you have dragged me to the Suicide Woods again. What’s your point?”

IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

Yes. It’s cute. There are myriad laughable moments, especially when Frank is being a complete jerk to the poor Robot. I’ll leave with this, my favorite exchange in the film:

Robot: “Frank, that cereal is for children. Enjoy this grapefruit.”
Frank: “You’re for children, stupid.”