what's wrong with "What About Bob?"

i hated watching "what about bob?" just like i hate knowing that folks like me are getting objectified and subjected to undue stress. i think my feeling towards the movie derives from my own ego-maniacal, control-freak nature.

i will try my best to tie all the things i think about this complicated emotion during this post.

let's take Leo Marvin (richard dreyfuss) as the center of the conversation, since i felt the most compassion among the few main characters with him. he's a psychiatrist, leaving for vacation immediately after seeing Bob (bill murray), a near-skizophrenic, for the first time. over the next week, Bob invades Leo's life in an attempt to seek treatment and friendship. Leo goes crazy during the whole charade.

anyhow, i hate bob's character for a few reasons. despite my hatred, however, i admire bob's personality and recognize merit in his transformation. the way Bob interjects into Leo's personal life shows how Bob completely disregards Leo's established spaces... professional, familial, personal. Secondly, the Marvin family shows little respect for the father of the family's wishes to rid the vacation month of Bob.

On the other hand, Leo's control of his family members is weak; its based on intimidation instead of positivity, rules instead of creativity and mutual contributions (see Leo's attempt to teach Siggy how/when to dive). And, most importantly, Bob's higher moral ground (why movie-goers like him and think he's funny) is his youth, his passion for life, and his contributions to (love for) the Marvin family.

my emotional rejection of Bob is half-cynical and half-uncomfortable. everyone knows the impossibility of maintaining a smiling face and energy throughout the day - this should be attributed to Bob's renewed confidence in life, but nearly completely disregards Bob's failure to participate constructively in society prior to our window of him. and, those who seem to have a logical, even-keeled sense of composure and normalcy (myself) base our status and posture on order and a traditional set of relationships. bob fucks with that and, in the end, blows up the Marvin home.

moral of the story: destructing centers of the traditionally-rich-white-professional-male-dominated and ordered family equals progressive change for the majority. as a person that advocates change for justice, can i really say that i support a revolution in terms of people power when i hate to admit that Leo couldn't keep his normalcy in the form of a vacation and privacy? i guess i ought to prepare emotionally for a time when folks don't trust my inhibitions as leader or team player.

this is the stress of the Leos of the world. i heard and felt the film's message that this is how non-traditional relationships work, to breakdown traditional senses of security and power as well as to find love where only barriers existed previously.