It’s rare these days when a film has a fresh feel. Almost all themes have been recycled ad infinitum in books as well as cinema. The trick is to spin a work in a unique way. This is the case with Robot and Frank (2012), which I viewed courtesy of Netflix. The plot is simple. In the near future a man buys a robot to help his dad, whose memory is slipping. Frank Langella has added another gem of a performance to his impressive canon, and he is ably supported by Susan Sarandon, James Marsden, Liv Tyler and Peter Skaarsgard, the voice of the robot. It’s not sci-fi. The story is character driven, family oriented. The father has alienated himself through bad behavior, but is still loved. I see the major theme as the difficulty of change. We are what we are. Few humans ever undergo a significant transformation in personality. The film’s budget was a miniscule 2.5 million. It earned 3.3, not bad for limited release and scant publicity. It is the first feature of Jake Schreier, the ex-keyboardist of indie band Francis and the Lights, with whom I am unfamiliar. The screenplay is by Christopher Ford, who wrote several TV movies and several episodes of the cable series Atom TV. Kudos to both. On a scale of five, I rate Robot and Frank four. It is rated seven of ten at IMDb.
Last night, Halloween, Antenna TV, channel 114 on Cablevision in NYC, ran an Alfred Hitchcock Presents marathon. I watched several episodes. The most interesting featured Robert Duval in the ironically titled Bad Actor. Others starred Michael Rennie, Andrew Prine, Robert Webber, Robert Armstrong and Rick Jason. That show, like The Twilight Zone, is a TV and movie buff’s dream. 50 years later, the stories still hold up.
Mallard Fillmore is a comic strip about the conservative views of a duck. It runs locally in the NY Post. Today he used an interesting stat: two-thirds more of public school teachers send their kids to private school than other parents. It’s not surprising. Who would know better what goes on?
I expected to be confined to the apartment most of the day, given the weather report of rain and 50 MPH winds. I went out for some air at noon. It looked like the sky was clearing. I cleaned the windows of my car and when I was done there was still no sign of rain and the wind gusted only occasionally and not nearly to the degree that had been predicted. I decided to set up the floating book shop, leaving only my and January Valentine's books in the trunk. It proved wise. My thanks to the folks who bought. It capped a lucky week.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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