If Rubber sounds totally unappealing, then Robot & Frank might be more up your street. A relatively gentle and easy-to-follow near-future yarn, it follows Frank Langellas retired cat burglar as dementia slowly creeps in. To accommodate his deteriorating mental state, his son (James Marsden) buys him a live-in robot helper. A lot of the humour of the film comes from the curmudgeonly Frank arguing with the polite robot (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), who tries to keep him to a fixed routine and to engage in hobbies that will increase cognitive brain function. Frank is far more interested in visiting potential love interest Susan Sarandon at the local library, whose books are being replaced. Robot & Frank isnt exactly hard sci-fi - the world looks mostly like our own, save for some slightly better tablets, improved Skype call quality and funny haircuts on the youngsters - but theres enough in there to complement the whole youth vs age, new vs old generation tensions, and to ultimately service a very human and affecting story.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
