This week’s movie releases

A gentle sci-fi drama from first-time director Jake Schreier, Robot & Frank stars Frank Langella as Frank, a lonely old man starting to show signs of dementia. Reluctant to put him in a home, his son (James Marsden) buys him a robot to keep him company. Though less than enamored of his automated companion at first, Frank gradually recognizes the possibilities he presents for rebooting his career. Frank, you see, is a retired jewel thief and is soon training his new pal in the art of picking locks.

Taking the Hollywood dollar after his Swedish adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Niels Arden Oplev delivers Dead Man Down, his US debut. Starring Colin Farrell and Dragon Tattoo girl Noomi Rapace, it’s an action thriller about two people whose hunger for revenge draws them together.

Edited down to feature length from the very funny six-part BBC series, The Trip stars comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as fictional versions of themselves on a restaurant tour in the north of England. It’s directed by Michael Winterbottom and follows in the same vein as his earlier A Cock And Bull Story, capturing the duo fly-on-the-wall style as they get up to no good and compete to outdo each other with their impressions of Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Anthony Hopkins and the like.

Alberto Aranda’s La estrella stars Ingrid Rubio as a Barcelona woman taking life by the reins and looking for real happiness after best friend Carmen Machi seeks her help to escape from her violent husband.