sundance film festival 2012 DAY THREE: robot and frank

first movie of the morning, failed at that, didn't get in.

wasn't going to mess up for the second movie, i showed up hella early.
they tell volunteers 2 hours, and i thought that's when they issued the tickets. no. they tell you 2 hours, and issue tickets at 1 hour before showtime. ball sack, not to mention we have to stand outside in a blizzard and i was wearing something like this:


it was cold, i was dumb. but luckily i only had to wait in it for about 20 minutes. thank you jack frost. oh, man i saw a clip of that movie, holy shit. out of control.


ROBOT & FRANK

Dir. Jake Schreier
Starring: Frank Langella, Susan Surandon, Liv Tyler, James Marsden

Frank Langella, plays Frank. Yup.

This movie takes place in the future! Not by too much, just enough for there to be robots to support the plot. But who doesn't love robots? At least until they turn evil and try to kill us?

Frank is getting older and seems to have alzheimers, although that word isn't used in the film. His son (James Marsden from TV'sSecond Noah) attempts to take care of him as best he can while driving 10 hours each weekend to check up on him. I could never do this for my parents, I also can't stand the thought of my own mortality and having another persons in my face would be too much to handle. But most families tend to take care of each other, so yeah. His daughter, (played by Steven Tyler's daughter), is a traveling do-gooder. When his son brings home a robot aid to help Frank with his memory and health, Frank's daughter is not fond of the idea and neither is Frank. The case with memory loss often triggers anger and defensiveness and Frank deems himself, just fine.

Once Frank is left alone with robot, he takes it on as a companion that he can teach things to and sort of gets used to the routine the robot implements. Even his healthy gourmet cooking is slowly enjoyed. I will be first in line to by a cooking robot. Also, that crazy hairdo robot that used to be on the Jetson's. We slowly learn that Frank is a retired cat bugler. He begins to teach the robot to pick locks and how to plan a robbery. Since the robot has no moral compass of right and wrong, he sees planning heists as a helpful project and tool to help Frank's health and after all, that's what he's programmed to do.

The movie then turns into a sort of old man/robot heist film. Which is sort of equally charming and sad. For me, Frank's metamorphosis in the film made me change my opinion of him as well. I went full circle with his character, which isn't something I normally experience. From feeling pity for him, to cheering him on, despite making bad choices, and then back to sympathy. Frank becomes one of those characters that walks the line of a bad guy that you want to get away with it.
Call me negative, but who doesn't love those characters? It makes them more real, perhaps?

Overall, this is a pretty fun and unique idea and looks great. Wasn't too fond of the ending, but I never am, so don't count that against it. You have to love the buddy relationship these two have. Man + Machine. In the future, we won't even need dogs.

bonus: ana gasteyer shows up for a brief role with some amazing "future" hair. She for sure had the Jetson's hairdo robot.