BOB TREVINO LIKES IT Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Tracie Laymon
Stars: Barbie Ferreira, John Leguizamo, French Stewart, Lauren “Lolo” Spencer, Rachel Bay Jones, Ted Welch, Ashlyn Moore, Tristan Thompson.
This unashamed tearjerker is the sophomore feature for writer/director Tracie Laymon (2011’s Girls! Girls! Girls!, etc).
Lily Trevino (Barbie Ferreira, from Nope, etc) suffers from bouts of depression and mood swings. Her life is largely an unhappy lot. She works as a carer for the wheelchair bound Daphne (Lauren “Lola” Spencer). She has never known who mother who abandoned the family while she was just four years old. Her relationship with her taciturn and disapproving father Bob (French Stewart, best known for his role in the tv sitcom 3rd Rock From The Sun, etc) is strained. After an argument with her father Bob refuses to talk to Lily. Desperate to reconnect she attempts to connect with him online. Searching Facebook profiles leads her to a Bob Trevino. She sends him a happy photo, and he responds with a “like.”
But this Bob Trevino (played by John Leguizamo) is not her father. Rather he is a building contractor who is dealing with his own grief over the death of his young son. He spends lots of hours at work, while his wife Jeanie (Rachel Bay Jones) copes by creating a scrapbook filled with memories of their son. A friendship develops between Lily and Bob, two emotionally damaged people, and this forms the crux of this heartfelt if slightly manipulative film. Bob’s small gestures of kindness towards Lily changes her life. Awkward moments between them come across as natural and organic rather than forced.
The film explores universal themes of friendship, grief, belonging, finding a connection.
Leguizamo brings warmth, charm and empathy to his role. Cast largely against type Stewart is good as an unpleasant and unlikeable character. Ferreira brings vulnerability and sympathy to her performance.
Bob Trevino Likes It is a small but deeply personal film for Laymon which was largely inspired by her real-life friendship formed with a stranger on social media while searching online for her own father. Fittingly Bob Trevino Likes It is dedicated to her father who, she says, encouraged her interest in films, books and poetry.
The ending is likely to reduce many in the audience to blubbering wrecks.
★★★
