What About Bob?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| What About Bob? | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Frank Oz |
| Produced by | Laura Ziskin and Bernard Williams |
| Written by | Alvin Sargent and Laura Ziskin (Story) Tom Schulman (Screenplay) |
| Starring | Bill Murray Richard Dreyfuss |
| Music by | Miles Goodman |
| Cinematography | Michael Ballhaus |
| Editing by | Anne V. Coates |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 17, 1991 |
| Running time | 99 min. |
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
What About Bob? is a 1991 comedy movie directed by Frank Oz which stars Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfuss. Bill Murray plays Bob Wiley, a very kind but multiphobic psychiatric patient who follows his successful and beyond egotistical psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin (played by Richard Dreyfuss) on vacation. When the unstable Bob befriends the other members of the Marvin clan, it slowly drives Leo insane. Other characters include Fay Marvin, played by Julie Hagerty, Anna Marvin, played by Kathryn Erbe, Sigmund "Siggy" Marvin, played by Charlie Korsmo and Mr. and Mrs. Guttman, played by Tom Aldredge and Susan Willis.
Upon seeing his performance at the world premiere, Steven Spielberg spent $250,000 on a campaign to not only get Bill Murray nominated for the Best Leading Actor Academy Award but actually win it. Murray didn't receive a nomination and he on several occasions has attempted to pay Spielberg back, but Spielberg refused.[citation needed]
Bill Murray improvised so many lines during the movie that accurate scripts couldn't be written until after shooting the scenes.
This film is number 43 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
[edit] Plot summary
When Dr. Leo Marvin, a trained psychiatrist, leaves his work to go on vacation in New Hampshire, he leaves his newly published book, "Baby Steps," with his new patient, Bob Wiley. Bob is a very nice man, but he's nearly paralyzed by multiple phobias, and his previous psychiatrist, Dr. Carswell Fendsterwald, looking close to a nervous breakdown, is quitting his practice for a while and leaving town to get away from Bob. This and the fact that a number of psychiatrists have dropped Bob foreshadow future events, though not in the way one would expect.
Bob is afraid he can’t make it without his doctor and contacts him twice by phone. Leo, however, makes it quite clear that he has no desire to make time for Bob on his vacation. Desperate for help, Bob fakes his own death in order to find out where Leo went for vacation. Pretending to be a detective researching his own "suicide," Bob learns the address of Leo's vacation home from an employee at his exchange. Bob takes a bus to New Hampshire and arrives at a gas station, where he begins frantically calling Leo's name. Leo, visibly upset that Bob has come to New Hampshire, tells him that he will call him at 4:00. In exchange, Bob promises to remain at the bus station and return to New York City via bus as soon as the phone call with Leo is over. Bob waits dilegently at a nearby coffee shop until just after 3:00. At this point, a chance comment on Bob's part alerts the Guttmans, the elderly proprietors of the coffee shop, that Dr. Marvin is going to call him. The Guttmans have nursed an obvious hatred towards Dr. Marvin who had bought the vacation home that the Guttmans had been saving for their entire life to buy. Eager to make Leo miserable, the Guttmans offer to drive Bob (who they like for who he is) to the vacation house. Desperate to get rid of Bob, Leo also helps him by writing the words "Take a vacation from your problems" on a prescription pad. Bob seems to have made a breakthrough, but arrives the next morning and explains to Leo that he has decided to remain in New Hampshire on vacation. He also tells Leo that he's staying with the Guttmans who have suggested that he visit the Marvins as a friend, not a patient.
Leo's family is happy to have Bob with them, but Leo is not. Bob's presence causes a number of events that wrack Leo's characteristic calm demeanor and leave him deeply unsettled. Several of these events occur when Bob begins hanging out with Leo's two kids, Anna and Sigmund. Anna is a typical teenage girl, distraught over having to deal with a father that communicates with her through psychological aides (eg. hand-puppets fashioned in the image of her and her father). She would much rather spend time with Bob. Sigmund, on the other hand, is quite obviously the son of a psychologist; he believes that he has lost his childhood, and has an obsessive fixation with the inevitability of death. Bob seems to become a father figure to the kids, helping Sigmund gain enough confidence to dive into the water (a feat Leo was not able to accomplish) and getting Anna to admit to Leo that he's insensitive, doesn't listen and isn't any fun and that Bob is the exact opposite. Other notable events include Bob creating a very awkward tension during the family's dinner, saving Leo from choking to death and then spending the night (in Leo's pajamas) when a storm rolls in.
Throughout the film, it is revealed that Leo has an almost unhealthy fixation on his upcoming interview with Good Morning America. Afraid that Bob will ruin the moment for him, he tries his hardest to get rid of Bob. Bob, however, ends up staying, because the interviewer of the show thinks that it will be a great idea for a patient to be on with Leo. The interview is disastrous for Leo, who is very nervous and makes a fool of himself while Bob, who gets just a little nervous completely steals the show and everyone's hearts. After Good Morning America leaves, Leo becomes infuriated and, after appearing to calm down, takes Bob to an institution. Bob is dragged in, wondering why Leo isn't coming with him. Leo heads back home, happy that he is finally free. As soon as he arrives, though, he gets a phone call from the institution. Leo heads back, only to find that Bob has convinced the doctors, nurses and other staff that he is perfectly sane and has been amusing them with psychiatric-themed jokes. Leo ends up taking Bob away, but leaves him in the middle of the road. Leo then gets a speeding ticket and while Bob gets a ride back to the house Leo's car gets a flat tire. Leo fixes his car and heads back home, which he enters visibly disturbed and covered in mud. Upon walking out onto the veranda, he is surprised by the birthday party his wife Fay has been secretly planning for him. The sight of his friends, colleagues, and especially his beloved sister Lily (who had come from Chicago) seem to put him in much better spirits. Just as Leo seems happy, Bob appears and puts his arm around Lily. The sight of Bob with Lily is the final straw; Leo becomes insane, leaping from the stairway and tackling Bob. Bob, however, isn't hurt, and remains clueless as to how hostile Leo has become towards him. The Marvin family guiltily informs Bob that he is the reason for Leo's breakdown, and Bob agrees to leave once and for all. At the same time, Leo sneaks out of the house, breaks into an ammunition shop, and steals 20 pounds of black powder explosives. Walking home, he encounters Bob, marches him at shotgun point, ties him to a log, and straps all 20 pounds of explosive to him, sarcastically labeling his actions as "Death therapy, Bob. Guaranteed cure." Leo then abandons Bob, thinking he is free at last. Bob, however, is convinced that the explosives represent a metaphor; he feels he must untie his internal knots to prevent himself from exploding. Untying his knots, he returns to Leo and his family at the vacation home's dock, holding Leo's birthday cake. Leo is miserable to see Bob again. He claims that Leo's "therapy" cured him. Unfortunately, Bob had placed the bags full of black powder (which he thought were fake) in Leo's extravagant house, blowing it to pieces, much to the approval of the Guttmans (who happen to be sitting on a boat lakeside), who enjoy the sight of the burning house, gleefully chanting, "Burn! Burn!"
Leo, having suffered more than he can bear from Bob, becomes catatonic and is temporarily institutionalized getting his license permanently revoked changing his title to Mr. Marvin. Meanwhile, Bob marries Leo's sister Lily. At the wedding, Leo recovers his senses just after Lily and Bob are pronounced husband and wife, screaming a desperate "NO!", though that fact is lost in his family's joy at having him back. A title card appears in the end that says:
"Bob went back to school and became a psychologist.
He then wrote a huge best seller, Death Therapy.
Leo is suing him for the rights."
[edit] Production notes
- The movie was filmed in and around the town of Moneta, Virginia located on Smith Mountain Lake. Production had to go south because at the real Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, the leaves were already turning for the fall season.
- The house used in the filming still stands. The exploding house was a prop house built for the explosion on a nearby lake front lot; the local inhabitants gathered to watch the explosion from land and boats.
- The scenes of Bob arriving in town on the bus with his goldfish were filmed in downtown Moneta, which was spruced up and repainted for the movie.
- The local institute which Leo tries to commit Bob in is actually the local Elks Home for retirees in the nearby town of Bedford, Virginia.
- Throughout the film, Leo shows an obsession with Sigmund Freud. He is frequently shown with a bust of the man, and his son is named Sigmund, and his daughter Anna (the name of Freud's daughter)
[edit] External links
|
|||||
