Leonard prefers to watch the world around him—he doesn’t want to "engage" himself, as his controlling mother would put it. His observations lead him to discover that we all have our personal obsessions: he watches his mother struggle for control over her home, her family and her garden; he watches his father grasp at the last vestiges of his youth (with some help from a swanky Corvette). But an unlikely friendship with Vivian, the old lady next door with the hot tub, teaches Leonard that sometimes his obsession with watching people prevents him from experiencing his own life to its fullest.