Netquix: What About Bob? (1991)

Netflix content reviewed in 150 words. Or thereabouts.

What About Bob? (1991)

Dir: Frank Oz

Running Time: 98 minutes

What about Bob then? Well, he’s annoying for starters. Very, very annoying. Luckily, he’s played with charm-exuding magnetism by Bill Murray. Concerning the titular psychiatric patient’s holiday hounding of Richard Dreyfuss’ slowly unravelling Doctor, this early nineties comedy essentially comprises a series of awkward set pieces that gather momentum by the minute.

 

Bob: jarring

Puppetry of the penis

Frank Oz’s airy direction plays Tom Schulman’s potentially dark script polystyrene light, which is demonstrably for the best (we all remember The Cable Guy, yeah?). Satisfyingly however, the gags’ cumulative effect climax in faintly bleak high farce, narrowly avoiding the clichéd sugar-sweet denouements of that era’s family fare (Big, Home Alone et al). The mirrored dovetailing of the two central character’s arcs feels convenient, but given it’s the whole point of the film, churlish to complain.

Despite the short run time however, you may feel that much like its exasperating eponymous anti-hero, Bob outstays his welcome.

6/10