Day 197: Frank & Robot (September, 22)

I reached Frank & Robot when this day was almost over (I hit the play on Netflix only a few minutes shy of midnight). At the end of this indie movie, I had a bit of contradictory feelings toward it. Written about the film now, I think that's because this production is so pretentious that it lacked in many aspects.

It is not lacking in what concerns the acting, though. Frank Langella is this movie along Peter Sarsgaard, that gives so much to Robot through the way he voices it. Old age, oblivion, lost relations, resentment... everything that is a part of Frank is there, in those two great actor's interaction. From them, we can think a lot about what we see around us daily, specially what means getting older. Not for nothing, the film is set on a "near future", nothing not so far from our own experiences.

Memory is a key element here, and as you've probably seen in other Sci-fi productions, it is also what we are made of, what identifies us as ourselves. The changes that the library pass through in that near future world and the role fo the librarian talks a lot about this subject. The Robot's program is to help FranK, and it does it beautifully by connecting Frank to what he used to be. However, that is not what he was bought for.

At this point, I didn't know if I was seeing too ahead of the movie's plot or if the writing couldn't really commit to its real intentions. That way, we reach the mentioned lacking end, that gives an emotional closure to the story, one that are not truly related to what came before, I think. And so, I turned off the TV not sure about of what i just have seen, wishing that it would have dared to go farther than what people expect from small movies like this one.

Frank and Robot. Directed by Jake Schreier. With: Peter Sarsgaard, Frank
Langella, Susan Sarandon. Writer: Christopher D. Ford. USA, 2012, 89 min.,
Dolby Digital, Color (Netflix).

PS: Two of my nieces and I went to a friend's restaurant on this night, with the idea to watch a movie together after it. The food was too good, the beer excellent, the company was the best. When we were leaving, they said how sleepy they were, anxious to get home to sleep. You're so cute, I've said in my most sarcastic voice (that I regretted right way when they gave me a true puppy stare), because I had a movie to watch. Another day to remind me the meaning of a challenge :)