In the near future, an ex-jewel thief receives a gift from his son: a robot butler programmed to look after him. But soon the two companions try their luck as a heist team.
In the near future, Frank is a retired catburglar living alone while his successful son, Hunter, tries to care for him from afar. Finally, Hunter gets him a robot caretaker, but Frank soon learns that it is as useful as a burglary aide. As Frank tries to restart his old profession, the uncomfortable realities of a changing world and his worsening dementia threaten to take beyond what any reboot can do for him.—Kenneth Chisholm ([email protected])
An aging thief with a fading memory finds his love for larceny reinvigorated after receiving a companion robot from his concerned son in this tender Sci-Fi comedy-drama starring Academy Award nominee Frank Langella. Frank (Langella) is a former criminal living out his twilight years in quiet solitude. Though frequent trips to the local library keep him physically active and mentally stimulated, there's little question that his memory isn't what it used to be, and lately his grown children have begun to express concern over the fact that he lives alone. Bestowed a caretaker robot capable of offering engaging interaction and tending to basic household chores, Frank at first resents his android helper. But in time he lets his guard down and begins to actually enjoy the companionship of his new domestic partner. Later, when the future of the local library is threatened, Frank falls back into his old ways and discovers that his robot also doubles as a competent criminal sidekick.
In the near future, long divorced aged cat burglar Frank Weld, who has spent time in prison in the past for his crimes, is living alone in retirement in his isolated house in Cold Spring, New York. Frank spends his time lounging and reading, he the last person in Cold Spring regularly to check books out of the library, as much for the books themselves as just to go to the library in being attracted to the human librarian, Jennifer. That library experience will soon be changing in a renovation where the books will be no more, except for the most expensive first editions of classics, with the physical building transformed more into a place of experience than a place to house books to check out. He would deny it if told, but he is in some stage of Alzheimers, he forgetting things such as his favorite restaurant in town, Harry's, where he says he ate "yesterday", long having closed. His son, Hunter Weld, who resents his father for being a non-existent person in his life while he was growing up, acts as Frank's primary caregiver as the family member geographically closest - a ten hour round trip drive - but Hunter is finding that the amount of work he has to do in his weekly trips to clean the house, plus the time is becoming too much, especially as he has his own family to consider. As Frank won't even consider being institutionalized in stating that there is nothing wrong with his mind, Hunter decides that the next best option is to purchase the latest state-of-the-art model robot for his father as Frank's primary caregiver. While the robot does not sit well with Hunter's sister Madison Weld as Hunter shirking his responsibility, she who is on the other side of the world working on a humanitarian project, it sits even less well with Frank who sees the robot as an intrusion on his life, an intrusion that has no "off" button. In spending time with the robot, Frank learns that its programming is solely in aid of his health, and while it does know all other "dictionary" concepts, does not place judgment on what is considered morally right or wrong outside of that primary goal of Frank's health. As such, Frank, with the robot by his side as his new best friend, decides the robot can help him get back into the game of larceny primarily in an effort to do something nice for Jennifer before the books are destroyed. But he transforms that larceny into something a little more grand when he believes that the person heading the library redevelopment, his neighbor Jake, and Jake's wife Ava are benefiting a little too much from this and all their other projects than they should.—Huggo
Set in the near future, an aging ex-convict and thief named Frank (Frank Langella) lives alone and is experiencing increasingly serious mental deterioration and dementia. Frank's son Hunter (James Marsden), an attorney with a family of his own, grows tired of making weekly visits to his father's home, but is reluctant to put his father into fulltime care, so he purchases a robot companion (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), which is programmed to provide Frank with therapeutic care, including a fixed daily routine and cognitive enhancing activities like gardening.Initially wary of the robot's presence in his life, Frank warms up to his new companion when he realizes the robot is not programmed to distinguish between legal recreational activities and criminal ones, and can assist him in lock-picking. Together, the two commit a heist in order to win the affection of the local librarian (Susan Sarandon): they steal an antique copy of Don Quixote from the library, which is being renovated and turned into a community center in the wake of declining interest in print media.
In the meantime, Frank's daughter Madison (Liv Tyler), who is away on a philanthropic trip in Turkmenistan, learns of the robot and returns to convince her father to get rid of the machine, which she finds ethically objectionable. Frank insists on keeping the robot, and they commit one last heist, stealing jewels from Jake (Jeremy Strong), the rich young developer at the head of the library renovation project. The police become involved and begin to question and monitor Frank, who maintains his innocence, feigning deathly illness so that Hunter will return to see him. In order to cover his tracks, Frank is faced with the decision of whether or not to wipe the memory of his robot, even as his own memory rapidly deteriorates.
Frank returns to the library where he discovers that the librarian is actually his divorced wife, whom he had forgotten. He then returns home where the robot convinces him to wipe his holographic memory, as he is not a person and his sole reason for existence is to help Frank. Frank is then sent to a 'Brain Center', where he receives help in coping with his dementia. The police do not recover the jewels that, as Frank explains in a note to Hunter, are hidden under the tomato plants in the garden that the robot made.
