ROBOT & FRANK Katara DFI Cinema Screening

Set in the near future, Frank, a retired cat burglar, has two grown kids who are concerned he can no longer live alone. They are tempted to place him in a nursing home until Frank’s son chooses a different option: against the old man’s wishes, he buys Frank a walking, talking humanoid robot programmed to improve his physical and mental health. What follows is an often hilarious and somewhat heartbreaking story about finding friends and family in the most unexpected places.

Winner: Sundance Film Festival 2012, Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize

Tickets are available on the Doha Film Institute website, via this link: http://d-h.fi/raftix

IndieWire.com review, by Eric Kohn:

Directed by newcomer Jake Schreier from a screenplay by Christopher D. Ford, "Robot and Frank" allows its understated wit to emerge organically from well-calibrated performances and the resulting pathos. Despite the ostensibly absurd set-up, the filmmakers play it straight, so that Frank's initial resistance to the robot's intrusion in his secluded life is no less credible than if the old man were grappling with a pushy roommate.

"Robot and Frank" succeeds... because Schreier and Ford render the relationship between the human character and the robot in largely credible terms. While there's never a point in time in which the movie hints that the robot has developed bona fide feelings toward Frank, his own affection for the robot is entirely believable. The ultimate cinematic actor, [Frank] Langella's facial expressions often tell the story in close-up, and with "Robot and Frank" they display a jaded man rediscovering his passion. With his subjectivity the star of the show, once Frank starts to see the robot as his only friend, so can we.