Directed by: Frank Oz
Screenplay by: Tom Schulman
Story by: Alvin Sargent&Laura Ziskin
With:Bill Murray as Bob Wiley, a complete neurotic boarding on the psychotic, a former movie critic who became so engrossed in the fantastic make-believe he cannot deal with the world, modern or fantasy. A likely Tolkien fan. His only confident/friend is a disinterested goldfish (you know the type).
Richard Dreyfuss as Dr. Leo Marvin, a control freak in a pompous vein;a tight-assed shrink. Dreyfuss managed to abandon his typical mannered performance (“Look at me, Ma! I’m acting!”) for something more convincing.
Julie Hagerty as Fay Marvin, Leo’s kind-hearted none too bright wife.
Charlie Korsmo as Sigmund “Siggy” Marvin, only son with trust issues: a future junkie.
Kathryn Erbe as Anna Marvin, the teenage daughter aspiring to escape the cold hell created by a father who communicates with his children through the medium of hand puppets.
Dr. Marvin is in control; of his office, his family, his patients. He has authored a psychology manual titled Baby Steps. The type of banal advice you’ll find in the self-help section of any surviving bookstore (Amazon being yet years in the future).
On the very day he and his family are to depart for a month’s vacation in New Hampshire, Bob blunders into the office with his traveling freak show. Marvin puts him off with the line about Baby Steps which Bob buys, along with a copy of the book. Cha-ching!
At the Marvin vacation home on Lake Whynotyouwannagofuckself the doc stabilizes himself for a live TV remote on Good Morning America (thankfully after David Hartman left the show), along with his family. The teenage daughter would rather party with her local lowbrow friends, while the humorless son favors a more Gothic existence. He may even write poetry in furtherance. And why not? His appointment with Satan is set; date and time.
As you might expect, Dr. Marvin has alienated the vacation locals with his economic abuse of money, New York method. Back in Gotham, Bob panics with accesses to his shrink who he believes his savior severed for a month. As his native intelligence much greater than even Dr. Marvin’s, he learns the vacation location and catches a bus north. The cunning rogue.
As you might expect, the doc is not happy to see him, but nonetheless advises him to return to New York and “take a vacation from his troubles”.
Bob’s chosen vacation location? Why Lake Whynotyouwannagofuckself! Now they’re neighbors. Being a classic narcissist, Bob is able to charm the Marvin family. He overcomes his fear of water when daughter Anna takes him sailing on the lake, tired to the mast like Odysseus resisting the Sirens call.
All this causes the doc to come unglued. Each insult he directs against Bob is seen as a radical form of therapy. Joan Lunden and GMA crew arrives to live remote interview with Dr. Marvin about his book and the doc freezes on the air. Bob’s goofy charm saves the spot.
In thanks, the doc tries to have Bob committed to the laughing academy, but Bob charms the staff. Finally, Marvin ties Bob to a tree and decorates him with twenty pounds of black powder. Boom! Bob survives; alas, Dr. Marvin’s sanity does not.
Richard Dreyfuss does a fine job as the shrink whose reason unravels. Bill Murray’s pumpkin patch personality shines through as usual, turning in a fine comic performance. Director Frank Oz was able to play the diverse acting styles against one another to produce a good comedy, a rarity, even in the dinosaur age of 1991.
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