When Andrew and I got married we decided that cable TV was a waste of money and subscribed to Netflix. That was almost 20 years ago! We still get the DVDs in the mail with our plan. I'm not joking, they still mail out DVDs, and it's great because a lot of the DVD movies aren't available for streaming. I should also mention ~ in case you didn't know ~ they limit your queue to 500 titles. So when you tell me about a great movie and I say, "I'll add it to the list.", I really do...most of the time.
The day Ginger died I got a movie in the mail, it was A Street Cat Named Bob. I knew about the movie because Bob was one of my many Facebook famous cat friends and I knew that he died last summer. Needless to say, this DVD sat around my house for six months because it was triggering for me to even look at it, let alone watch it. I knew it was a feel-good movie and based on a best selling book of the same name from 2012. Yesterday I finally was in the right mind set to watch it.
*SPOILER ALERT*
A Street Cat Named Bob is exactly what it's about, but there's more to it than that. It's based on a true story about a young musician named James that is homeless and a recovering drug addict. A social worker sees potential in James and finds him a place to live. One night Bob, the ginger tabby, appears in his apartment after the window was left open. He feeds Bob cereal and milk because it's all he has. (Side note: Cats are lactose intolerant, don't give them milk if you can avoid it.) He asks around and no one claims Bob.
Bob picks James as his person, even though James is in denial throughout the movie and says more than once, "Bob is not my cat". James takes care of Bob and spends the last of his money at the vet (haven't we ALL be there before?) and finally acknowledges that Bob is his cat and best friend. James detoxes from methadone with the help of Bob just being a comfort and emotional support animal. They help each other on their journeys.
James is a busker and a great musician but is invisible to the general public, BUT once he starts bringing Bob out with him, everyone wants a picture with him and his cat. Bob is the center of attention, his gimmick, a fan knits Bob little scarves, and brings him cat food, and he relieves James' loneliness. They become a team, and even have an article in the local paper written about them. It grabs the attention of a book publisher and they ask him to write his story. It becomes a best seller and in real life James is now a millionaire.
Here's the real owner of Bob.
I will say I cried through the whole second half of the movie. The relationship that they had was charming and heartfelt. It made me miss Ginger. There's lot of close ups of Bob, and camera angles from Bob's perspective...or should I say PURRspective? There's lots of purring in the movie. James' dad is played by Anthony Head (aka Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer). Bob is played by himself, and his owner that wrote the story is his handler for the movie! (Although I didn't see Bob on the Cinema Cats website.)
I looked up how Bob died, and he got hit by a car. I will repeat this until I'm blue. If you have the capability to keep your cat indoors please do. Cats are killed by cars more often than you think. It's a shame that Bob died like that. Thinking about it upsets me, so I will digress.
I give the movie four and a half cans of tuna out of five.
Here's the trailer
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