MovieChat Forums > Robot & Frank (2012) Discussion > The true message of the film... (spoiler...

The true message of the film... (spoilers)

posted 12 years ago by TheCornProject
5 replies | jump to latest

From the very first scene we see Frank rob his own house. Clearly this is a precursor to the strange antics of the main character. Frank mainly spends his days alone attempting to relive his past life. He has lost touch with the future as we see when he is annoyed by the refurbished library & his belief that Harry's Diner still exists. These are standard traits of a person with dementia- his denial of such a problem is another major trait. For a brief time when the robot is introduced into his life, he recovers some social skills & builds a relationship with the robot after initially disregarding it.

Unfortunately, in the building of this relationship, he uncovers a flaw in the robot's artificial intelligence which helps him exploit the robot to suit his delusional antics as a jewel thief (from his previous life). This to his detriment worsens his mental state even faster. After some time passes, he begins to rely on the robot & treat it like a human companion. He gets to the point where he rejects his own daughter in favor of the robot who he sees as a genuine being. After stealing the diamonds from his suspicious neighbor, his paranoia begins increasing & he begins creating fantastical ways of avoiding detection. In the end, in order to protect him from himself, the robot convinces him to delete it's memory in order to cover up evidence. The robot recognizes the fact that it can no longer be of assistance to Frank who now needs constant supervision in a secure setting.

Symbolically the robot represents who we wish we could be. We wish to erase our pasts or start fresh but we don't have this feature as human beings. Dementia sufferers can't restart or go back to a point where they can think clearly. Dementia slowly worsens until a person dies. In the end Frank had to go to the nursing home because he was losing control of his own actions. In the final shot, Frank acknowledges to himself that his robot just like the robots that surround the other elderly people in the nursing home was nothing more than a machine whose primary function was to improve his health (even if that meant deceiving him). Brilliant but very sad movie. 8/10

If insane outnumbered sane, would sane then be considered insane?

[–] zippy_zip_3000 12 years ago

Couldn't have said it better myself. I also felt this movie was brilliant and truly sad at the same time.
I really do hope this gets a wide audience and not just your typical movie goers expecting a more mature Ted (as another imdb member wrote).

[–] savaslikesmovies 12 years ago

It's not all hopeless. Indeed he's nearly clueless about his illness, but he continues to try to be rich and finally leaves his family with at least a million or some millions, however much the jewels are worth.

[–] ronaldhp_duke 12 years ago

I do agree the robot was detrimental to his relationship with human beings, but at the same time, the robot helped him slowly regain his memories. As the robot encouraged him to eat healthier, follow a schedule and involve himself in a hobby (crime), he was able to break out of that angry and cynical shell and discover the happy moments in life.

Along with many other messages of the movie, what I'm trying to say is that because the robot was dedicated to the welfare of Frank and had no personal life like the son or daughter, it was able to bond with Frank on a level no one else could. You can't expect a son or daughter to care for their parent 24/7. As good as the daughter's intentions were, there was no way she was going to take care of her father without pulling out her hair once in a while.

I think the movie was trying to introduce both the advantages and risks of introducing A.I. into society and did a very good job of not allowing those messages come before the characters on stage.

[–] move_over_fatso 11 years ago

That last paragraph observation is brilliant. Because I did get the impression he sort of resents those other robots presence in the facility. I looked at it more as a metaphorical statement about how we're abandoning our elderly, and how we're willing to leave them with machines rather than deal with them.

You seem to have missed why Frank started to develop an emotional attachment to the machine. He kept confusing it with his son, when he was young. The robot is designed to look cute and childlike to enhance emotional attachment.

[–] k-man-3 10 years ago

I thought the message was robot butlers are cool.