Robot & Frank

Year: 2012
Genre: Drama
Director: Jake Schreier


Plot: An aging jewel thief befriends a robot butler given to him by his son, and together they plan a heist.


The gist: Robot & Frank tells the story of a friendship between a human and a robot. Frank is a former jewel thief with a rapidly increasing memory problem, who is assigned a robot butler by his son, so that he can be taken care of instead of being sent to a nursing home.

At first, the old man dislikes the idea of having the robot there, but the machine grows on him after a while, becoming his loyal friend and even assisting him in planning a heist somewhere nearby.

The entire story is simple enough, as it focuses on their friendship and how a machine can learn to care for its owner despite not having any emotions of its own.


The good: Frank Langella is solid in the role of Frank, who makes his character likable despite being rather grumpy most of the time. Peter Sarsgaard does a good job voicing the robot, giving him a human like quality even though he sounds very much like a machine. There's a minor twist in the third act which was nice, even though it doesn't quite affect the story too much.

The bad: Even at a short 89 minutes, the film does feel draggy at times. I would also have preferred the robot to have more presence in the film than it got, as Frank gets more character development overall.


Verdict: It's a decent story about friendship, and worth checking out. (3/5)