Robot and Frank (2012): Loving Larcenous Langela

Frank Langella is simply amazing. Two newcomers, first time feature director Jake Schreier and screenwriter Christopher Ford, have hit the big time with this thoroughly entertaining little flick, but they couldn’t have done it without Frank. I haven’t seen a lot of his movies – perhaps because most of Langella’s career has been as a stage actor – but he was transcendent as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon (2008), not least because he was so damned convincing playing a very public guy to whom he bore little physical resemblance. He is completely different, but every bit as good in this comic film, playing an older man with a strong ego, whose mind is starting to slip away from him.

If Langella’s mind were actually slipping (which, appearances in this film notwithstanding, it isn’t), it would be convenient that his character shares his given name; and it’s certainly convenient for me here. Frank is a guy who wants to live life his own way.  But his former vitality is ebbing, and modern life and technology are passing him by, not that he’d admit it. When his hotshot lawyer son, Hunter (James Marsden), tries to convince him to move into an assisted living community, he angrily refuses. This being the future, albeit a not too distant one, Hunter buys Frank a new robot to serve as valet, housekeeper, cook and companion. “Give it a try,” he pleads.

There is, of course, an amusing period of adjustment, which is cleverly wrought. Robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard) is small, cute, and low tech in appearance (of necessity, given the picture’s shoestring budget), although quite capable of adroitly handling its assignment. Conveniently for Frank, Robot’s highly advanced programming does not include a morality module, and when Frank recognizes this, he starts scheming about a return to his former trade, burglary, with an accomplice who will leave no prints.  Soon, what started as an arrangement turns into a relationship, and the movie takes an odd and comedic twist into a buddy film, of sorts. I needn’t spoil the story by further plot description, but can say that funny stuff ensues. Much of this is predictable stuff, but it is well played.

Which brings me back to Langella. For much of this picture he’s conversing one-on-one with Robot. Most likely, someone off screen is simply reading Robot’s lines. The actual ‘robot’ has no facial expression and little body language to respond to. It’s all Frank. And he makes it work - brilliantly, naturalistically, believably – in a warm, nuanced and deadpan comic performance, that allows any disbelief to be easily suspended. Although not a particularly likeable man, Langella’s Frank stirs our empathy, and provides a little window into what it might be like to experience the onset of Alzheimers – all the while sustaining what is essentially a comedy.

Frank’s interactions with son Hunter, his daughter Madison (Liv Tyler), his eventual nemesis (Jeremy Strong), and the town librarian, Jennifer (Susan Sarandon) are fine. Sarandon, in particular, is quite good, as usual, although her character’s role in the story lies somewhere between superfluous and ridiculous. Strong lives up to his name playing a wonderfully smug and weaselly rich guy. I fear Tyler may never figure out the acting thing, but her stiff discomfort before the camera is thankfully brief. But ‘frankly’, it’s all about Robot and Frank. 

Ford, the writer of this tale, tries to throw in some intellectual meat and social comment about aging, etc, but this is pretty light stuff. There’s also a bit of a twist at the end, which makes little sense, but fails to mar the overall project. What Ford does pretty well is set up funny situations and provide comfortable, witty dialogue. Langella does the rest.

In sum, this is a pretty good, pretty funny movie. See it for Frank.

 In current release