Ah, a dog and his robot. Tale as old as time, huh? If man’s best friend is a dog, who is dog’s best friend? Clearly, a robot. Well, that’s true, at least, of DOG, a Manhattan-ite, who loses his robot on an Ocean City Beach one day … as one does.
You know, outside of Star Wars, movie robots get such a bad name, From HAL to the AI revolution, we have nothing but fear in our future, it seems. And what about the lesser-known droids, huh? What about the Love-inator, the cyborg who traveled back in time to present all the Sarah Connors in Los Angeles with candy and flowers? Betcha don’t know about that one, huh?
DOG lives a nothing life. For amusement, he plays Pong against himself in his crummy apartment. He doesn’t have friends. Impossible to say whether or not it was a choice, but DOG is, clearly lonely right now. So, he takes a big chance and orders an artificial friend … and gosh if it doesn’t payoff big time. DOG are Robot are insta-friends, sharing smiles, food, and dance moves together. If this were a romance, it would be an instant success. Wait. Is this a romance? No. Wait. Maybe. No. Clearly no.
I think.
One afternoon late in the summer, DOG takes a trip to Ocean City where he and Robot have a marvelous time playing at the beach and in the water. And after baking in the sun, Robot rusts up and can’t move. DOG, not being strong enough to heft the pure metal thing up -wait. Wasn’t DOG able to lift the entire Robot box before assembling it? I don’t remember- anyway, DOG has to leave rusty Robot on the beach alone. And in true come-tragic fashion, the beach immediately closes for the season and DOG has no access to Robot until the following summer.
And this is where we get literal Robot Dreams, for Robot longs to leave the beach, but cannot.
There are several dreams in Robot Dreams. Dreams tend to be a cheap gimmick. It generally means the film can’t commit to a plotline. I suppose we can give this film a mild pass for such since it has “Dreams” in the title, but I still found myself -more than once- enjoying a reality that wasn’t happening. There are a few small things to enjoy about Robot Dreams, like DOG reading Pet Sematary or using a towel to modestly change out of a bathing suit (only to be “naked” anyway). It’s also hard to dislike the DOG/Robot theme of “September” by Earth, Wind, & Fire.
OTOH, Robot Dreams feels like filler material, like the stuff that happens on a Peanuts special while you’re waiting for a Charlie Brown punchline. It’s amiable filler, to be sure. But it’s filler. I think the film wants to give us the feel of what it’s like to lose a lover, but that message is both a bit old for the target audience (“family”) and dissipated considerably by the surreal dreaming. When the film constantly has to remind you that what you just saw never happened, you’re not really thinking about the devastation of loss and moving on so much as “Well, what DID happen then?”
Robot Dreams is a better-than-average film, and I praise any use of the format that gets by with almost zero dialogue (now, that’s storytelling!), yet ultimately forgettable. Twenty years from now, I’ll forget this film ever happened, but I will still recall Antonio Banderas voicing Puss in Boots.
DOG was a perpetual loner
To his credit, DOG wasn’t a moaner
He ordered a friend
And with tragic end
We wonder which pal was the owner
Not Rated, 103 Minutes
Director: Pablo Berger (with nacho cheese!)
Writer: Pablo Berger, Sara Varon
Genre: Filler
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Feeling robots
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who like big moments
