Review of What About Bob? (1991) by Jesse O — 22 Jun 2014

This might be one the few movies where you can say that Bill Murray ISN'T the highlight of the film. Seriously, think of how many films he's been in. Then think of how he's, more than likely, been one of the best parts of the film.

Well this is the rare example where Murray, while still greatly entertaining, isn't the highlight. Richard Dreyfuss' descent into madness as Bob becomes increasingly more involved in his life, even to the point of "turning" his family against him, is comedy gold.

Bob shows the family that Leo is boring and arrogant. This, of course, eats up at Leo and his transformation into a madman that is driven to attempted murder is really entertaining to see. Unfortunately, I don't think the film translates Richard's excellent performance into a great film.

Yes, it's definitely a funny film, but it's also a terribly inconsistent one. Until Bob finds his way to where Leo and his family are vacationing, nothing that funny happens. And even then, it takes a while of Bob's constant presence before Leo starts to lose his mind and plan his murderous revenge.

The plot is a little sitcom-y, it's all about the hi-jinks. Thankfully, Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss do a great job at elevating predictable, and familiar, material. Another thing I enjoyed was Leo's antagonistic manner towards Bob.

It felt very genuine. That's most likely because Richard and Bill purposely didn't get along during filming. Richard encouraged Bill to annoy him on purpose. And you just don't see that that often in these types of film.

That type of method acting, I think that gives the film most of its entertainment value. Richard Dreyfuss is the perfect straight man to Murray's goofy, silly character. Some of Richard's facial expressions are priceless.

I definitely enjoyed my time with this film, it's not great or anything of the sort, but you can't really go wrong with Richard Dreyfuss and Bill Murray going off on each other. You really cannot go wrong.