I have fallen for Frank. He speaks with quavering deliberation, as though he settling on the thought as the words form.
He is riveting as Gabriel, the Russian handler for the embedded agents, in The Americans. He pulls off a non-impersonation of Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon alongside Michael Sheen’s Frost that shows the intelligence and the deep distrust of a man who was closed off from reality and morality. In Robot and Frank, he plays a crotchety former cat burglar who is beginning to lose touch with the world, whose son gives him a “health robot” who by focusing on Frank’s health, gives him a new lease on life. The activities that they engage in are not all above board. Langella acting against the flat voice of the robot, drives the whole film at 10 mph allowing the audience to slow down and yet be drawm in by him. Time to see him in more films.
