Robot and Frank
Stage 6 Films | Release Date: August 17, 2012 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 23, 2012
A hard, funny and realistic movie about the future. Read full review
91
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 28, 2012
Robot & Frank occasionally strains for emotion and stretches credulity, even for such fantasy circumstances. But it has two hearts - one human, one not - in the right place, and intelligence that is anything but artificial. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn LevyAug 30, 2012
There's a terrific balance between human comedy and just-this-side-of-science-fiction in Robot & Frank. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanAug 22, 2012
Robot & Frank is sentimental high-concept fluff that works. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnAug 14, 2012
Robot and Frank succeeds where "Ted" fails because, unlike McFarlane, Schreier and Ford render the relationship between the human character and the robot in largely credible terms. Read full review
80
EmpireDamon WiseMar 4, 2013
Forget the sci-fi trimmings and sentimental pay-off — this is a gleefully subversive character study of a charming but unapologetic rogue. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyFeb 16, 2013
Playful, patient and finally poignant, Schreier’s deceptively placid odd-couple winner runs the risk of looking minor. But it carefully exceeds expectation, helped in no small measure by Langella’s wily, wistful lead. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 30, 2012
This is director Jake Schreier's first feature, and, working from a script by Christopher D. Ford, he creates an inviting world. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 23, 2012
Everything about Robot & Frank is as unlikely as it is irresistible. Charming, playful and sly, it makes us believe that a serene automaton and a snappish human being can be best friends forever. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirAug 16, 2012
Robot & Frank is such a sly, dry, modest-seeming picture – part science fiction, part social satire, part geriatric comedy – that you don't realize how well it works until it's over. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesAug 29, 2012
What a weird, winning little movie is Robot & Frank, which explores what happens to the essential self as the memory goes. Oh, and it's a heist picture. With robot butlers. I'm not sure I've ever seen anything quite like it. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 24, 2012
Langella's performance turns what might have been a "Twilight Zone"-style trifle into something more: a movie about a proud, ornery man combating his fearfulness. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaAug 23, 2012
It's an Alzheimer's allegory, full of humanity, heart, and humor. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickAug 17, 2012
The feature directorial debut of Jake Schreier, has a smart script by C.D. Ford and an impressive supporting cast. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 16, 2012
It also addresses questions of aging and neglect that Hollywood likes to run from. Langella, who's played everyone from Dracula to Nixon onscreen, is giving a master class in acting. Enroll now. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayAug 11, 2012
Schreier elicits warm performances from Langella and Susan Sarandon, and even from his robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard). Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensAug 18, 2012
At heart, Frank & Robot is, true to its title, a buddy movie about the complicated relationship between a thief and his mechanized sidekick (a sleek, white, helmeted creature voiced with unsettling politeness by Peter Sarsgaard). But it's also a rueful and funny reflection on aging, death, parenthood, and technology. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissAug 16, 2012
What I'm saying is that I resisted the film but it won me over, a little more than I care to admit. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 14, 2012
Robot & Frank, like its protagonist, is charming enough to get by with the sleight-of-hand. Its irresponsibility redeems it - it's a raspberry blown against the dying of the light. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeAug 11, 2012
Robot & Frank reminds quirk-hardened veterans that an odd premise and big heart don't have to add up to too-precious awards bait. Read full review
70
VarietyJohn AndersonAug 11, 2012
Debuting helmer Jake Schreier, screenwriter Christopher D. Ford and a wry and wily Frank Langella all shine in a smart, plausible and resonant film. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsAug 30, 2012
Ultimately a movie that could have been a little jewel is unpolished. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyAug 23, 2012
Very charming but very slight. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertAug 22, 2012
This is a framework that could have benefitted from more irony and complexity, especially with the resources of Langella, but at the end, I felt the movie was too easily satisfied. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 9, 2012
An enjoyable diversion, a lightweight bit of philosophizing that blends humor with the bittersweet. It won't likely stick in your memory for too terribly long. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierAug 16, 2012
No one conveys late-life elegy and cool intellectual cunning like Langella. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisAug 16, 2012
Frank Langella plays so many variations on cute and crotchety and with such suppleness - he's by turns a charming codger, a silver fox and a wise graybeard - that his performance comes close to a saving grace. Read full review
60
Boxoffice MagazineRay GreeneAug 11, 2012
The film is light-fingered and charming. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 23, 2012
Robot & Frank isn't sure whether it's a comedy or drama, buddy movie or sci-fi fantasy, family melodrama or social satire. Read full review
50
The PlaylistCory EverettAug 16, 2012
While the premise certainly makes it stand out from the sea of dysfunctional family dramas, a cute idea alone doesn't quite cut it. In the end it's just not funny enough to be completely entertaining and the sentiment feels tacked on. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 23, 2012
The concept is schematic and predictable, and watching first-rate actors - the cast includes Susan Sarandon as a local librarian - doing third-rate material is a dubious pleasure. Read full review
40
Time OutDavid FearAug 14, 2012
The pleasure of watching the star sling barbs at Sarsgaard's sandpaper-dry android, shyly court sexy librarian Susan Sarandon and rage against geriatric befuddlement doesn't offset what's essentially a mediocre character study dipped in sci-fi conventions and Social Security–age sentimentality. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineChris CabinAug 14, 2012
Christopher D. Ford's film is nothing more than a Lifetime movie dolled up in cheap Philip K. Dick drag. Read full review
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