Set in the near future, Frank, an elderly, retired cat burgular, has two grown children who are concerned about their father's well-being. Frank is a stubborn man, with no desire to leave his home, where he lives alone. With his old man not budging, Frank's son buys Frank a humanoid robot programmed to be a caretaker whose primarily goal is to improve Frank's mental and physical health. Jake Schreier's Robot & Frank is a charming, comical and surprisingly tragic story about friendship and family. Early on in the film it's apparent that Frank is a man suffering from what appears to be early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Thankfully this is never outright stated, but subtle shown through actions of Franks. The aspect of this film which I was very impressed with was just how touching the relationship between Frank and the Robot ended up being. Frank is a man who slowly begins to trust and rely on the Robot and the film does a great job at capturing their growing relationship, even having the success of the film rely heavily on this growth. Robot & Frank should also be commended for its near-future setting, with lots of small, yet effective uses of technology which feel authentic and likely in the near future. The film manages to pull of this near-future in a small-scale setting which no doubt saved the production lots of money. While I certainly enjoyed Robot & Frank more than I was initially expecting, some of the films decisions border on sentimental contrivance. There is a climatic narrative twist that just feels out of place and unnecessarily, for example, but the film's likability more so than not outweighed my frustration. 7.25/10
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
|