Frankly, My Robot, I Somehow Give A Damn

ROBOT & FRANK (Dir. Jake Schreier, 2012)

“He’s my friend,” Frank Langella says of his robot partner in crime in the new comedy drama ROBOT & FRANK. It’s a simple line, but when quietly spoken by the grand actor, it’s utterly believable, and even a little moving.

Also soft-spoken and convincing is the robot, which looks like it was manufactured by the same company that created EVE from WALL-E, that is, before they could outfit them to fly. This relationship largely works because of the inspired choice of Peter Sarsgaard to voice the never-named robot.

Set in the near future, and mostly taking place in a rickety old house in upstate New York, this film’s premise is cute, even a bit flimsy, but its likability factor is high.

Langella, playing the kind of crusty cranky character he could play in his sleep, is a retired jewel thief, whose son (James Marsden) gives him the robot, and when Frank finds out that his new helper wasn’t programmed to obey the law (and can pick locks in record time), he’s back in the robbery game.

Langella has eyes for the local librarian (a fine but flightier than usual Susan Sarandon), who is dealing with the re-structuring, or re-imaging of her workplace into some kind of new-fangled interactive “library experience” by a group of snobby young rich hipsters headed by Jeremy Strong.

Strong is the target of Frank’s latest sting, but conflict arrives in the form of Liv Tyler as Frank’s hippy daughter who is a part of the anti-robot “human movement.” Although the film’s tagline is “Friendship doesn’t have an off switch,” Tyler has a password that de-activates the robot, and this makes for one of the weakest and least thought out sequences in the film. Frank never thinks to call Marsden for the password, and the way the situation is resolved is really lazy writing.

That doesn’t ruin the film though, not even the shoe-horned in detective character (Jeremy Sisto) on the trail can do that, as the charming camaraderie between Frank and his robot make this a breezily enjoyable 89 minutes at the movies.

Director Schreier, who was the keyboardist for the indie band Francis and the Lights who provide the film’s soundtrack, shuffles pleasantly through the screenplay by Christopher D. Ford, and it’s a promising full-length film debut for both of them.

Even in such a light movie, Langella is a heavy presence. ROBOT & FRANK is capable enough to both capture his poignant power and hold our attention.

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SUPER: The Film Babble Blog Review

SUPER (Dir. James Gunn, 2010)

Add The Crimson Bolt to the growing list of superheroes that aren't really superheroes.



Just like KICK ASS, this movie wonders out loud 'why don't people actually try to be superheroes,' gives us an ordinary schmuck who dons a costume, and has him get his ass kicked before he ultimately saves the day. However, the tone of SUPER is completely different. 





Rainn Wilson is our ordinary schmuck here, a short-order cook whose wife (Liv Tyler) leaves him for a slimy drug dealing kingpin played by Kevin Bacon. Rainn takes us into his deprssing existence by way of dry narration ("People look stupid when they cry" he says over a shot of him sobbing), with the film starting off darkly, but a blaringly bright cartoon credits sequence seems to announce that the film is going to be an outrageous romp.



It is and it isn't - there are some funny bits here and there, but once Rainn takes up bashing people's heads in with a wrench, the film's laughs get fewer and fewer.



As a comic book store clerk who is implausibly infatuated with Rainn, Ellen Page overacts like crazy, as if she's trying make us forget her graceful performance in last summer's INCEPTION. Page makes her own costume, which she poses in creepily, and despite Rainn's insistence that he needs no sidekick, asserts herself as "Bolty" - her Robin to Rainn's Batman.



  In one of many unpleasant moments, Page forces herself sexually on Rainn - why on earth did the film makers feel they had to go there? The pathetic duo arm themselves with heavy weaponry to take on Bacon's thugs, and the movie's final act is a ultra-violent shakily-shot shoot 'em up in which the film beats its premise into a bloody pulp. It's an unamusing assault on the senses with a flimsy conclusion. 





The only strength is Rainn's unwavering commitment to character. This guy definitely has more layers to him than Dwight Shrute, and Rainn fleshes them out intensely. It's a character that deserves a better more rounded narrative, not these worn out conventions.



On the sidelines Liv Tyler doesn't have much to do but look drugged out, Bacon seems to be having a ball probably because he could've done the role in his sleep, and as one of the heavies Michael Rooker just looks uncomfortable. Oh, I almost forgot the odd cameo by Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) as a Christian superhero named the Holy Avenger that Rainn is inspired by when watching him on an religious cable channel. 





Really don't know what the point of that means either. SUPER is a tired take on superhero pipe-dreams that has nothing new to say satirically. I rolled my eyes more than I laughed, and I cringed more than I smiled. 





I guess those are fitting reactions to a film written and directed by the guy who wrote the live action SCOOBY-DOO movies. 





More later...