Robot Revolution: The one with a robot and Frank

 

 

Title: Robot And Frank

What Year?: 2012

Classification: Mashup

Rating: That’s Good! (4/4)

 

In the course of my reviews, the running theme has been that I don’t do “new”. For the most part, this really gives the wrong impression of my actual viewing habits. The kinds of movies I review are not necessarily representative of the movies I watch. Among other things, I do see plenty of movies that are “new”, and even many that are popular. The true flip side is that I seem to have an inerrant homing instinct for movies that are either openly dismissed in their time or simply ignored and forgotten thereafter. This is pronounced enough that my pop culture experience can feel like living an alternate universe, where the films I consider admirable and outright astonishing get so little discussion I might doubt their existence if I wasn’t me. For my second review of this brand-new feature, I’m going with one of the more notable if not egregious examples. I present Robot And Frank, nothing less than the very best of the niche genre of the robot movie, and it does indeed have Frank.

Our story begins with an introduction to Frank, an old man who picks locks and shoplifts for fun but has trouble keeping track of whether his milk is expired.  His grown children are concerned enough that his son brings in the Robot, a specialized butler/ caregiver AI that tries to take charge of the house. At first, Frank agrees with his technophobic daughter, who wants the machine returned or scrapped, but the man and AI reach an understanding as its regime of healthy eating and structured routines restore his mind. Along the way, we learn that Frank isn’t just a petty kleptomaniac, but a master cat burglar, and the robot is flexible enough to help when his small-time antics nearly get him caught. As his faculties return, he strikes up a romance with a librarian who introduces him to her wealthiest patrons. It’s enough to get him interested in a return to the big time. He sets out on one last heist, with Robot on board. But getting the loot proves to be the easiest part, and the bot may be the one who pays the ultimate price!

Robot And Frank was a 2012 science fiction/ drama by first-time director Jake Schreier. The film was based on a script by Christopher Ford, reportedly conceived in 2002. The film starred Frank Langella (see Masters of the Universe) and Peter Sarsgaard as the voice of Robot, with James Marsden and Liv Tyler as Frank’s children Hunter and Madison. The Robot was a practical effect created by Alterian, Inc. The film premiered at the Sundance Festival in January 2012, followed by a limited theatrical release in August. It earned a reported box office of $4.9 million, roughly twice its $2.5M budget. Critical reviews were positive. The film has been available on digital platforms, at one point including streaming on Netflix.

For my experiences, this was a movie I’m sure I first encountered on Netflix, probably at 9 PM or later, after seeing a positive review. It immediately impressed me as a good example of what “mainstream” talent can bring to a genre film, and one of the best robot movies within the current millennium at least. Over time, my thoughts haven’t changed, but there has been a growing frustration factor as it has become clear that this wasn’t on its way to being a classic, “cult” or otherwise. Now, it’s not completely obscure (see Two Evil Eyes); I do meet people who have seen and liked it, when I mention it. What I haven’t seen is genre critics and fans evaluating it as a definitive modern treatment of robotics and artificial intelligence that all others should at least examine, which is by all means the level where it belongs.

Moving forward, the obvious thing to say in hindsight is that it’s not hard to see why this failed to catch on in either genre or “mainstream” circles. The “star” talent here kind of cancels itself out, with the exceptions of Tyler, who makes an impression just for looking her age (I know, 10 years ago…), and Jeremy Strong as the obnoxious target of the heist. Similarly, the “thoughtful” story and its themes of aging and mortality, all of which follow paths that would be well-worn for the arthouse scene where the film would have made its first appearance. Fortunately, this is a case where the actual merits of the film make the obvious criticisms moot, especially when it comes to Langella’s performance. He is simply superb, and I must say again that he lives down his reputation as a so-bad-it’s-good ham. If anything, his greatest strength is conveying the sense a character whose strongest tendencies are held in check, in this case by his harrowingly credible disabilities. What will ring true for those with experience is that there is never a “switch” from good to evil. At his lowest moment, conspicuously his spiteful antics at a store that replaced a favorite restaurant, there is still cunning beneath the surface, and a resentment of society that might be triggered by a changing world or might have been there all along. Once his faculties return, it becomes clear that he is no thief with a heart of gold, yet like the most intriguing outlaws, he is constrained by a minimum standard of morality and a skewed sense of fair play.

That brings us to Robot, and what is most noteworthy is that the story is driven by the AI’s relationship with the human lead. The bot is strikingly functional, almost but not quite “retro”, enough that one might debate if it should be counted as an “effect” at all. Sarsgaard’s voice work is perfect, never “robotic” yet rarely if ever emotional. There’s a certain level of “meta” in his repeated insistence that he is not a “person”, which notably never draws Frank into argument or debate beyond the off-hand comment, “Stop telling me you don’t exist.” What becomes fascinating and increasingly horrifying is the Robot’s largely unexplained descent into crime. I find it akin to nothing so much as the strange story “Fondly Fahrenheit” by Alfred Bester, albeit without a body count. As in Bester’s tale, the straightforward explanation is that Frank’s mental deterioration and already gray-area morals have somehow corrupted the AI. The equally unsettling alternative is that the bot is simply committed to aiding Frank in his recovery at all costs, even as it becomes increasingly clear that restoring his old self is anything but desirable. It all serves to set up the moral dilemma of the finale, the outcome of which is never in doubt. As with many things here, the fact that it is predictable in theory does not diminish its effectiveness in execution. There is a further payoff in Robot’s telegraphed threat to self-destruct, matched by a perfectly indifferent response from Marsden.

That leaves the “one scene”, and I’m going with the one that does the most to define the film’s wider assumed universe. At a gathering of the library’s patrons, Frank and Robot encounter another AI, previously introduced by the librarian (I know, Susan Sarandon) as Mr. Darcy, in service at the small-town library and who knows where and for how long before that. Compared to Robot, Darcy is a pitiful and subtly puzzling anachronism, resembling a 1980’s vintage desktop computer on wheels and quite possibly similar in computing power. The two humans try to get the two AI units to interact, with the clear expectation that this will be a charming diversion. At first, the robots merely identify each other by manufacturer and model, with the significant implication that Darcy’s files have been updated often enough to recognize a more advanced machine. When they are still pressured to be social, they offer a hilariously anticlimactic exchange that, as usual, is better seen than described. What continues to fascinate me almost to distraction is Mr. Darcy. He/ it really does “look” like something that could have been made in the 1980s, complete with enough evident wear and tear that it truly might be decades old. So, is this a further future than most of the tech would suggest? Or have we wandered into a millennial equivalent of a steampunk universe, where the dreams of 1950s-‘60s sci fi became reality at some point further back? It’s the kind of question that’s clearly thinking further than the filmmakers did, and this is one time that over-analysis only adds to the fun.

In closing, all I can really add is how I would stack this movie against others I have either reviewed elsewhere or considered for this feature. I definitely consider it superior to M3GAN. In fact, it’s a major reason I didn’t rate that one even higher than I did, something I would have made explicit if I didn’t prefer to avoid name-dropping films I might review later. By the same “rules”, I’m not yet ready to say how I would compare it to certain other robot/ AI films of the last decade. (I genuinely haven’t decided on the most prominent example, which means I will probably get to it.) Its greatest significance is that proves the recent successes of the robot (sub)genre have been not just a revival, but a true evolution. In the last century, science fiction ran the from Robby the Robot to Terminator, with the 1970s anxieties of Westworld and Futureworld in between. By 2010, with artificial intelligence and robotics increasingly a reality as much as fiction, we were ready to revisit the subject with a new sense of nuance and maturity, and the present film was among the first to prove how far the genre had come. That’s more than enough to get it a place among the highest ranks. With that, I have made my peace.