I got so involved in these characters I was sort of worrying about what was going to happen to Bobby after Jonathan's death. I wonder if he went to Arizona to be with Sissy Spacek, or invited her to live in the country with him, so that they would neither one be alone.
shareMaybe he hooked back up with Clare. She could have him solely then and his other great love would have passed. Just a thought.
shareWe don't know, but I was waiting the whole movie for Bobby to break apart and explode because all of his fake "happiness mojo" would eventually be torned apart by reality. That never hapened in the movie, but I think it will after Jonatham dies.
It's really sad. All he wanted was to be happy and have a family, and one by one they all left him, most of them died. And I think Claire was more like a friend for him than anything else. I mean, he almost broke his shell of "happiness" when Jonatham left him without saying a word, but when Claire did, he wasn't all that depressed.
He's a very peculiar character. Making everyone about him happy, but all of his "Happy face" is showing to us is that deep down he was the saddest and loneliest person in the world, who did everything just to please the people he loved, and keep them close.
Some people have said in this Forums that he was messed up in his head due to the drugs or all of the traumas he had as a child, and that teenage!Bobby was more confident and normal than adult!Bobby. I think that what definitely broke the confident Bobby and turned him into a lonely man with a mental age of 15 was when Jonatham broke up with him as a teenager. From them on he just focused on being the perfect son and learning to bake and cook. When he reunited with Jonatham he was SO in love with him and waiting for him, just to be treated as a brother. Jonatham just kept ignoring him, so he then became a broken toy, waiting to be picked up by Claire. But that wasn't what he really wanted. He was (and is) in love with Jonatham. The problem is that he loves Teenage!Jonatham, a person who grew up, became a slut and a totally different man. But Bobby keeps trying to reconnect with him. And man, he tried SO HARD to keep him happy. But Jonatham just didn't want a serious relationship with him. Or he did but something inside of him kept postponing the moment to opening his heart to Bobby..
Will Bobby return with his adoptive mother? Definitely. She has been areal mother for him and will be the only person left that still loves him. In the end I think he will take care of her till she dies, and he will finally become a lonely old man, becoming a good neighboor and all, but without real friends.
I can't believe i'm responding to such an old thread. I just watched this movie not too long ago. Maybe someone who has recently seen this film will come upon this thread. This was a great film and Farrel did an excellent job. A lot of actors would have played the role too "technical" Farrel's performance seemed honest. Like he was bringing a part of himself to the role.
As for the character. I think that is just his nature. The experience of seeing his brother die at a young age probably impacted him but its impossible to guess just how much that incident explains his character's emotional sensitivity. Personally I think he was a person who lived his life through his "feelings" and obviously felt a close connection to Jonathan. I don't think he truly cared how Jonathan turned out. His love seemed unconditional.
I never got the feeling that their relationship was sexual in any way. Jonathan obviously felt a strong attraction to Bobby but clearly Bobby did not feel the same. Bobby's early experiences with Jonathan seemed to show his need to get satisfaction and at that age it was primarily sexual. He wanted to feel other people and at the age where the mind is not fully developed he resorted to drugs and sex. At an older age sex became something more complex he stayed away from it because of that reason.
I think Clare could not understand Bobby because of his strange behavior towards her. She couldn't understand that he cannot give himself to her primarily because that would betray his nature of living life through his feelings. Being connected to everyone he communicates with. He could not be exclusive to her in the way that she wanted him to. The scene where she leaves asking him if he wants to come. His facial response was great. It was the first time in the film where you could see he does understand himself more than people would probably believe and that he felt offended she could not see that him leaving Jonathan is simply something he cannot do.
It's hard to say what his future holds. I could seeing him embarking on some failed relationships. Unless he finds someone like him but that is unlikely. If he does the person probably would not consider that someone else has that type of nature.
Tol22, your summation made me glad I returned to this thread.
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