Starring: Barbie Ferreira, John Leguizamo, French Stewart, Lauren ‘Lolo’ Spencer
Distributor: Rialto
Runtime: 102 mins. Reviewed in Mar 2025
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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When lonely 20-something Lily Trevino accidentally befriends a stranger online who shares the same name as her own self-centred father, encouragement and support from this new Bob Trevino could change her life.
Here is a drama with touches of comedy that many young adults might identify with and find entertaining as well as challenging. While the audience will be smiling quite often, by the end there will also be tears.
Who is Bob Trevino? In fact, in the film, there are two. The first is a rather embittered widower, living in aged care, continually trying to strike up relationships and ensure companionship and comfort for his future. This Bob Trevino has a daughter, Lily (an impressive performance by Ferreira). Lily is something of an awkward young woman who cares for a chair-confined client and has difficulty in relating to her demanding and emotionally-abusive father.
She relies on social media for connection. One night, feeling frustrated, she searches for anybody else with the name Bob Trevino. She finds one. And he replies. Hence the title and the clicking of ‘Like’ when we receive a pleasing text.
The screenplay has introduced us to the second Bob Trevino before the contact with Lily. He is married, with the couple’s 21-month-old child tragically dying. A builder, he is a loner, preferring to stay at home. And his wife spends her time with her hobby, creating photo book mementos, even entering national competitions and winning.
So, this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The two first meet when there is a toilet crisis for the chair-confined woman, and Lily asks Bob to come to fix it. Conversations begin, revelations about the past, mutual support, Lily clearly finding her new friend, Bob Trevino, as a surrogate father. He is played was quite some tenderness and sensitivity by John Leguizamo.
There is a further falling out with her father who hands Lily a list of all the expenses he has incurred in bringing her up. Then he asks her for money to help him with the new search for a companion. Confident after meeting her friend, she stands up to her father.
Then further events certainly do not quite turn out as we might have anticipated, leading to some anxiety, some sorrow, and some moving scenes with Bob’s wife.
One of the phrases to describe this kind of film is that it is a ‘slow-burner’. It begins rather quietly, and, when the audience surrenders to it, it touches the emotions, offers us many insights into human nature, something of a small film for all seasons.
(In fact, it is based on the experiences of the writer-director’s own search for her father.)
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