Bob Trevino Likes It
Bob Trevino Likes It
While seated with a new counselor for the first time in Bob Trevino Likes It, there are only fragments of what Lily (Barbie Ferreira) claims to be an elaborate explanation of events in flashback as she rapidly tells the story. Still, it’s obvious it’s a dark one: “I’m pretty sure it was not all my fault,” she says of being abandoned by her mother at age four, accusing her father of being the cause. And the way she puts it, as if she has been so hurt for so long that she is unfazed by talking about it, is just as painful.
As the counselor weeps and Lily lifts her hand to cover her mouth, Lily and the audience know that it is time to cry: Lily has to console the woman because of how sad her own life is. But it is the combination of these seemingly incompatible emotions that informs Bob Trevino Likes It. Sometimes the comedy is hilarious, like the character, who is often perky and playful. At the same time, like her, it’s a hidden little sob story, albeit one that manages to be quite poignant when the situation calls for it.
Surely, her character has been wronged in so many ways. Indeed, the opening sequence of the film shows her weeping while reading a text from her boyfriend which was meant for another girl. Mad, she sends the message: ‘LOOSE MY NUMBER YOU JERK.’ And then ignores it, replying: ‘No prob! :)’ It soon becomes clear that she has spent much of her life being a doormat thanks to her father (French Stewart is really good in this role) — a self-centered man who would always tell her she ruined his life by just being born and always plays the victim card whenever she tries to defend herself.
However, Bob Trevino Likes It is not focused on celebrating Lily’s sorrows. The film does not have as its strength the sight of its characters’ breakdowns but the beginning of their recovery. After a heated argument with dad, Lily logs into Facebook to look for him, but instead finds a middle aged builder who bears the same name. It was quick that Lily began to see Bob (John Leguizamo) as her father figure, while Bob saw Lily as the daughter he wished he had. As they deepen in affection, they each aid the other in finally returning from the blows that have destroyed their lives.
If there’s one critique that can be leveled against Bob Trevino Likes It, a film birthed from the heart and mind of writer producer Tracie Laymon, it has to be that the bond that exists between Lily and Bob appears to be somewhat breezy. Their edges are sharp and fit so well with each other’s, and Lily’s development moves without many stops, starts and regression which are usually characteristic of most normal evolutions in agreeable figures. Regarding Bob, is almost depicted as some saint who knows too well what to do or say in all times in order to put Lily in accordance with the demands of the situation. The few other characters who move the film forward such as Daphne (Lauren “Lolo” Spencer) who is Lily’s live-in employer and Jeanie (Rachel Bay Jones) who is Bob’s wife, exist only to helps in convincing Bob and especially Lily to follow their arcs but not to go on arcs ask themselves.
It might be possible to say Loosely Put that Bob Trevino Likes It would have perhaps been a better film in the constructed rawer more dark or more sprawling aspect. In its current form, it works quite well on its own as a love letter or more accurately a thank you. The two characters of Bob and Lily’s might have had an idealized connection – but Laymon does make it a point to place them in authentic seeming moments and actors who seem to be incapable of giving otherwise. Ferreira is beautiful as Lily who comes across as a frightened puppy – full of love and too eager to let it out, but stands in fear of getting hurt again and being kicked. Leguizamo adds a bit of comedown, decency and a slight sense of sadness to her kinetic and loud character. Bob is a warm outgoing person but there is something about his attitude that hints a little lack in his life that is not very specific. The warmth of the characters is further emphasized in the chemistry of Leguizamo and Ferreira when they portray snow blanket that covers the campfire during the meteor shower.
With the perfect male and female leads, the film’s real strength lies in its affable touch. Bob and Lily’s relationship may seem, especially in the first stages, quite mundane. He likes her posts because she does not seem to have much of an audience. She is concerned with his family history and shares hers as well. If her cistern gets clogged, she knows at once where to find Bob and that he will come and fix it. These are not breathtaking large-scale film movements. But it is obvious from their heads how much it costs to be able to perform these simple actions. While they are working to destroy each other’s defenses, Bob Trevino Likes It is busy with our defenses. During a directive aimed at helping Lily get over a serious traumatic childhood event and chorus, she was nursing a puppy that Bob’s mother was crying almost as hard as I was.
Eventually, with the help of the kind of dedicated and nurturing love she was never shown as a child, Lily is able to come to terms with the hurt that her father’s actions left behind. And Bob, after being shaken from his state of complacency, can now express the sad and troubling emotions that have been buried for such a long time, first to Lily and later to Jeanie. The Lily we leave at the end of Bob Trevino Likes It has not been completely healed, and an make-me-cry-certainly final scene hammers home the fact that life has more struggles in store for her. But she is a Lily who, for the first time, is able to accept what Bob told her in one of their key discussions: ‘We are all a little bit broken. But don’t worry, you’ll be alright.’ ‘It’s okay to be triggered’ for a girl whose narrative traumatized at least one therapist in the past is an achievement.
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- Genre: Comedy, Drama
- Country: United States
- Director: Tracie Laymon
- Cast: Barbie Ferreira, John Leguizamo, French Stewart