Review of What About Bob? (1991) by Ben L — 02 Jun 2012

I really shouldn't like this movie. Honestly movies where everything goes wrong for the main character drive me crazy. I tend to sympathize with the poor character and can't bear to watch them getting tortured like that. Yet somehow this movie doesn't get on my nerves. Perhaps it is the fact that the character of Dr. Leo Marvin is extremely ego-driven, so the agony feels like his comeuppance instead of a series of frustrating events. On the flip side Bob Wiley is such a fun character you can easily see why everyone starts to befriend him.

A big part of the credit must go to Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss for giving these characters so much personality. You can actually see in their portrayals the slow shift from one end of the sanity scale to the other. Everyone around them seems pretty level-headed so it is strictly the variable of the neurosis shifting from Bob to Leo. The script was clearly brilliant, but it would have never worked without the 2 lead actors who knocked their performances out of the park. Of course I do have to give a little recognition to Julie Hagerty as well simply for playing the sweetest wife you could possibly imagine.

Bob destroys Leo's life and we should hate him for that. You would expect that Bob is the villain of the film. However the weapon that Bob uses to drive Leo insane is kindness. He desires nothing more and nothing less than a friendship. So it becomes all about Leo's desire to keep his patient at arm's length. His obsession overtakes him and magically turns Bob into the hero that the audience roots for, and Leo himself into the villain. That is brilliant storytelling. When I can watch Richard Dreyfuss throwing a fit and laugh the whole time, you know they got something right. Because of this What About Bob is an extremely entertaining comedy that should entertain the whole family.