Robot & Frank

Year: 2012

Actors: Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler, James Marsden, Peter Sarsgaard

Duration: 89 min

In the near future, long divorced aged cat burglar Frank Weld, who has spent time in prison in the past for his crimes, is living alone in retirement in his isolated house in Cold Spring, New York. Frank spends his time lounging and reading, he the last person in Cold Spring regularly to check books out of the library, as much for the books themselves as just to go to the library in being attracted to the human librarian, Jennifer. That library experience will soon be changing in a renovation where the books will be no more, except for the most expensive first editions of classics, with the physical building transformed more into a place of experience than a place to house books to check out. He would deny it if told, but he is in some stage of Alzheimers, he forgetting things such as his favorite restaurant in town, Harry's, where he says he ate "yesterday", long having closed. His son, Hunter Weld, who resents his father for being a non-existent person in his life while he was growing up, acts as Frank's primary caregiver as the family member geographically closest - a ten hour round trip drive - but Hunter is finding that the amount of work he has to do in his weekly trips to clean the house, plus the time is becoming too much, especially as he has his own family to consider. As Frank won't even consider being institutionalized in stating that there is nothing wrong with his mind, Hunter decides that the next best option is to purchase the latest state-of-the-art model robot for his father as Frank's primary caregiver. While the robot does not sit well with Hunter's sister Madison Weld as Hunter shirking his responsibility, she who is on the other side of the world working on a humanitarian project, it sits even less well with Frank who sees the robot as an intrusion on his life, an intrusion that has no "off" button. In spending time with the robot, Frank learns that its programming is solely in aid of his health, and while it does know all other "dictionary" concepts, does not place judgment on what is considered morally right or wrong outside of that primary goal of Frank's health. As such, Frank, with the robot by his side as his new best friend, decides the robot can help him get back into the game of larceny primarily in an effort to do something nice for Jennifer before the books are destroyed. But he transforms that larceny into something a little more grand when he believes that the person heading the library redevelopment, his neighbor Jake, and Jake's wife Ava are benefiting a little too much from this and all their other projects than they should.—Huggo

Genre: Action   Comedy   Crime   Drama   Sci-Fi