A Love Song for Bobby Long

Plot synopsis:
Following the death of her mother from a drug overdose, eighteen-year-old Purslane (Pursy) Hominy Will (Johansson) leaves a Florida trailer park, where she lives with an abusive boyfriend, to return to her hometown of New Orleans. Her mother Lorraine was a jazz singer, whom Pursy felt neglected her for her career. Pursy had dropped out of high school and left the city.
The girl is surprised to find strangers living in her mother's dilapidated home: Bobby Long (Travolta), a former professor of literature at Auburn University, and his protégé and former teaching assistant, Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht), a struggling writer. Both men are heavy drinkers and smokers. They pass time quoting poets, playing chess, and spending time with the neighbors; Long also sings country-folk songs. The two convince Pursy that her mother left the house to all three of them. (But she is legally the sole heir, and the other two are limited by her mother's will as to how long they can stay in the house.)
Pursy moves in, acting as the most responsible member of the evolving dysfunctional family. The men's efforts to drive her away decline as they grow more fond of her. Bobby - slovenly and suffering from ailments he prefers to ignore - tries to improve Pursy by introducing her to the novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter; he also encourages her to return to high school and get her degree. Lawson is attracted to her but hesitates to become involved. The three have memories of Lorraine, especially Pursy, who feels that her mother ignored her to pursue her jazz career. When she finds a cache of letters her mother wrote to her but never mailed, Pursy learns more about how Lorraine felt about her, and the identity of her biological father.

Tags: storytelling, melodrama

Review:
If you like movies that are character driven, then this is one for you to watch.I have never seen Scarlett Johanssen in anything before.
Gabriel Macht also does a good job as Lawson Pines, Bobby Long's former teaching assistant who has accompanied Long into his descent out of a sense of loyalty and guilt.Perhaps the most interesting character, to me, is the one you never see, Lorraine Will; a New Orleans diva and the mother of young Pursey.
Lorraine's death from alcoholism is what brings our characters together, and much like Alex in The Big Chill, we never once see or hear from Lorraine (not even in voice-over when Pursey reads a letter never sent to her by Lorraine), but we experience her through the people in this movie.
For those who have read Ronald Everett Capps' novel 'Off Magazine Street' and savor the slow, lugubrious, decadent pattern of life in the poor section of New Orleans, then Screenwriter/Director Shainee Gabel's transformation of those ideas into A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG will certainly satisfy.
Though Gabel has manipulated characters names and identification to fit her sensitive interpretation of Capps' story into a visual manifestation, the changes are sound and serve to make this remarkably fine low budget film a humid, alcoholically lethargic slice of New Orleans as viable as, say, Tennessee Williams.
There is a captured ambiance of the South complete with decay, shanties, intermittent rain, and aimless broken lives that sets a fine stage for a rather minimal story.Purslane Hominy Will (Scarlett Johansson) is a young high school dropout living in trailer park trash in Florida with a low class boyfriend Lee (Clayne Crawford) when she learns of her mother Lorraine's death in New Orleans.
Though she hasn't seen or heard from her obese, druggie, songwriter mother in years, she wants to attend her funeral and strikes out for New Orleans.Arriving on the doorstep of her mother's rundown, rotting house, she discovers Bobby Long (John Travolta), an unkempt drunk who once was an English professor in a college in Alabama but fell into oblivion and alcohol when he lost his wife and family.
And while some feel the movie is too long for the minimal story, the length and pacing are in keeping with the traditions and the literature of the South and for this viewer it works exceedingly well.Travolta, Johansson, Macht, and Unger give multifaceted, highly sensitive performances.
However, she finds that the completely decayed house has two drunken dwellers: the former English professor Bobby Long (John Travolta) and his former assistant Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht), who has unsuccessfully been trying to write a book about the life of Bobby Long for nine years.
The irregular John Travolta and always perfect Scarlett Johansson are splendid in the role of broken, suffered and hopeless characters, and the story is never corny.
The music score with typical blues, songs and bands from New Orleans completes this surprisingly good movie.
Travolta is now a character actor, if anyone is.American movies don't always tell about these kind of losers in such a sympathetic way.
In both cases they captured the special uniqueness and character of the cities.The pace is slower and more relaxed, which goes a long way in capturing the atmosphere of New Orleans.I highly recommend this movie..
Travolta's iconic Bobby Long and the even-keeled Gabriel Macht are nothing more than alcoholic shells of men who trade literature quotes when Purcy pops into their lives.
The casting is genius and genuine, Travolta and Macht and little miss Scarlet deliver seamless performances, imbuing the characters they portray with a 360 degree view of the evolution of the human soul.
Add to all that the stunning images of a pre Katrina New Orleans, now and forever the best city on Earth, and there is no denying the force A Love Song For Bobby Long carries into an open and evolved soul.
I have several friends who live there and each of them think this movie rates very high because of the scenery, the interesting characters and the wonderful story line..
In both movies you have a wounded genius, a musical milieu, and Bobby Long (like Robert Duvall) finds his redemption through love.
Hey, Scarlett Johansson is worth the price of admission all by herself, but the many supporting roles -- including Gabriel Macht and Deborah Kara Unger -- are what make this movie real as down-home dirt.
It's sad, but tragically lovely to watch, and it's genuinely great when they redeem themselves in the end.Scarlett Johansson is her usual luminescent self as a young girl trying to deal with her mother's legacy and find her own way, but the true joy of the film is the relationship between John Travolta and the other main actor (I apologize for forgetting his name).
And although we don't like to watch our sex symbols get old, Travolta does a great job as a man whose best years are waaayyyy behind him, but he still manages a sort of seedy grace.Rounded out with a charming supporting cast and a beautiful sense of New Orleans (and the heat) almost as a character itself, A Love Song For Bobby Long is about as close to perfect as movies can be..
He can be bad or good, sweet or sad - and each time you feel it.This story is a study in character and Travolta takes it to the limit.
The story is very good; the look of the film is great and Travolta and Johansson bring their gifts to the lead roles.
I think this movie is a great contribution to film and story telling.
The film revolves around a trio of characters; two of whom live in the house that Pursy, played by Scarlett Johannson, comes to claim after the house's owner (her estranged mother) dies.
If you like any of the actors, Cajun style music, New Orleans, or just the South, see this movie.
It's a simple movie, about a bunch of people living their lives the way they know, the way they feel.In a world which seems to promote only block-busters, or mind-wrecking dramas (rapes, murders, people with disabilities) this is just a simple but very beautiful story about people like you and me, living their 'ordinary' life.I loved the way the movie simply took me and my girlfriend off the seat and introduced us to their world.
In my opinion this was hands down the best performance I've ever seen out of John Travolta, it was so far from the usual one sided character he plays.
Gabriel Macht, whom I had never heard of before this movie, really to me was the glue of the trio, he was such a wonderful actor, it was a treat to see.Shainee Gabel did an amazing job not sacrificing the integrity of the story with anything sensationalistic.
The Characters are real people, Travolta was Perfect for the part, Scarlett Johansson was so believable.
I have recommended Love Song for Bobby lone many times to my family and friends.One of my most favorite parts of the movie is when Travolta is singing with his band of friends.
Many critics, recognizing the movie is well shot and acted, considered it a book of literature quotations, but with such a talented John Travolta and with Scarlett Johansson in a very good shape the final opinion is that the picture is definitely above -average.
Anytime a movie is set in New Orleans, the actors give their characters an Alabama accent (Travolta's character has an excuse for this though).
John Travolta is Bobby Long, just like Scarlett Johansson is Purcy and Gabriel Macht is Lawson.
The shots of New Orleans give a wonderful background to a movie that will make you wish for a chance of redemption for each character.
Great movie!!!It touched my soul and if you have the heart to see beyond the beautiful actress you will see- a movie that shows you a picture of a family crushed by the life and its hardness and how the love and friendship can save you and your soul.The movie gives the opportunity to see John Travolta in a new drama character and to show us how great one alcoholic can be.I was sick by the perfect characters with gorgeous bodies and perfect smiles.This movie touches you not with effects and perfect heroes but with touching story and a lot of clever jokes.It has it all pain joy happiness love and friendship.I love this movie- see it.Perfect choice of characters and great script.Well made film for people who can understand it..
By and large, Travolta, who plays the title role of "Bobby Long," has played a lot of interesting characters in the last two decades and his acting seems to get better and better.
Macht is a new face but he was good, too, and his character "Lawson Pines" was, by far, the nicest person of the three.So, if you like good acting and appreciate outstanding cinematography, which this movie boasts and don't mind soap-opera-type stories, you should like this film very much.
Drama loves have a great option to see this move, I mean I have seen this move very closely, and Mr. Travolta is performing best in this movie move over the locations and no flashbacks are kind of realistic.
The fact that we only really learned the "full story" of the beginning of the action, at the end of the film is part of the genius of the writing, which made the revelations seem just as they would be experienced in real life.The cinematography was excellent, with the character of New Orleans playing a supporting role through the art of the camera work.Direction was excellent, the action moved along briskly, but without apparent impatience.
They were all of excellent quality.The principals: Bobby Long, was at times somewhat over the top as an to-be-redeemed sinner, but the performance was generally very carefully nuanced to allow the audience to get to know a man who is wrestling with demons and quoting giants, while making his ebullient way through the day.
Great movie, well written script and beautifully directed by a new director Shainee Gabel with top performances by John Travolta and Scarlet Johansson.
This isn't a "ha ha" comedy, but there is enough to make you smile or even laugh out loud once in a while.Some of the characters (Bobby Long, Lawson Pines) and themes (literature, decline of an English professor) reminded me a bit of "Wonder Boys." This movie falls short by comparison, again mostly because of the casting.
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG (2004) **1/2 John Travolta, Scarlett Johanssen, Gabriel Macht, Deborah Kara Unger.What is it about movies down south, specifically The Big Easy, New Orleans, that evokes a certain Southern Gothic laziness that is refreshing for the most part in its colorful atmosphere and usually borderline characters near caricatures?
The latest cinematic gumbo is a picaresque shades of the '70s storytelling with newcomer filmmaker Shainee Gabel's adaptation of Ronald Everett Capps' slightly eccentric tale about a somewhat independent young woman named Pursy Will (Johanssen continuing to be an interesting screen presence in her eclectic roles to date) who reluctantly returns home for the funeral of her estranged local heroine/folksinger Lorraine Will (who is never depicted on screen only in fond recollections) where she discovers her late mother's house is inhabited by Bobby Long (Travolta in his Southern accent mode) a cantankerous aging drunk and former professor of literature who has holed up as a latter-day squatter of sorts with his young protégé and wanna be author Lawson Pines (Macht in an underplayed turn).
Scarlett Johansson and newcomer Gabriel Macht give nice performances, and the sexual tension between them is palpable (though a bit forced at times.) The use of "The City That Care Forgot" (New Orleans) as a backdrop is possibly the best thing about the film; it is a character unto itself and adds immeasurably to the overall feel of the film.
This time she was with John Travolta in A Love Song for Bobby Long.
Being a long trip, I didn't want something entirely boring, so I started watching this, hoping it would at least be entertaining.Well, I hadn't heard much about it, but I was pleasantly surprised by the performances, even if the film itself isn't so great.Scarlett Johanssen plays Purslane, a young woman who returns to New Orleans after hearing of her mother's death, expecting to reclaim her old home.
Unfortunately two of her estranged mother's friends now live in the house - Bobby Long (John Travolta), a drunken former professor, and a younger guy named Lawson Pines.
They are hard at work on a novel about Bobby's tumultuous life, and have no intention of leaving, which creates a strong tension.Although the movie is not particularly special and its "low budget" appeal certainly gives it that air of pretentiousness many indie films have today, the performances are great.
It tells the story of Pursy (Scarlett Johannson) sharing the house left behind by her late mother with routine drinkers Bobby Long (John Travolta) and Lawson (Gabriel Macht).
And Pursy will make some tearful discoveries about her mother.The film stays watchable to me largely because of Scarlett Johansson and John Travolta's baffling presence as the gray-haired Bobby Long.
Tennessee Williams already wrote that play, five or six times, fifty or sixty years ago, so films like 'A Love Song for Bobby Long' just seem lazy in their flat, unoriginal, post-card view of how people live in the South.Bobby Long (John Travolta) is a disgraced English professor who has migrated from Alabama to New Orleans to drink himself to death.
This format might work if it weren't for the fact that the dialog runs like an 'intro to Southern Lit.' course at a big state U, with plenty of thickly accented lofty quotations by Bobby, tired, purple descriptions of New Orleans voiced by Lawson (whose name itself is yet another cliché), and shots of Pursy sitting around reading Carson McCullers (whose 'The Heart is a Lonely Hunter' seems to bear the brunt of the blame for the formulaic story) or Flannery O'Connor.Travolta is typically charismatic as Bobby Long, but for his painfully bad Alabama accent and the fact that his character is as cliché as they come.
The plot is thin and a bit predictable, and hinges on a rather unsurprising revelation about Pursy's parentage, but Johannson, Macht, and, to a lesser extent, Travolta, are engaging and entertaining enough that I didn't consider the film a waste of time.Still, I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the endless string of heavy-handed, cartoonish clichés about life in New Orleans, and the plot and characters are treacly and unoriginal.
Gabel's drama about a woman who returns to New Orleans after the death of her mother and shares the house with her ex literature professor friend (Travolta) and his biographer (Macht).
The girl is played extremely well by Scarlett Johansson,a nd i found her character very believable.She meets two men, Bobby and Lawson (played by John Travolta and Gabriel Macht), who live in her mothers house, and the story follows their building relationships and struggles together.The movie is really moving and leaves you with a warm feeling inside, with a charming soundtrack to go with.Highley recommended for those seeking a quality drama to watch on a Friday night.
After her mother's death Pursy (Johansson) goes to New Orleans and finds two of her mother's best friends living in the house she thought was now hers.This is a movie you don't just watch.
The Cinematography is more than outstanding and shows New Orleans and the characters with a clarity, a richness and an honesty rarely found in movies.The dialogue is pertinent, cautious, clever and at times pulls no punches.
Travolta makes Bobby Long an unforgettable character (who is looking for redemption) and this may be his best performance yet.
She returns to New Orleans to find former professor Bobby Long (John Travolta) and Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht) living in her mother's house.
A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is a somber and lumbering story of a young girl named Percy(Scarlett Johansson)who, upon learning of her mother's death, journeys to New Orleans to claim her mother's home and, upon her arrival, finds an alcoholic former college professor (John Travolta) and an alcoholic former writer (Gabriel Macht) living there.
A poor, precocious 18 year-old woman (Scarlett Johansson) returns to New Orleans after the death of her estranged mother where she inherits a dilapidated house in the low-income section with two co-heir strangers: A quirky ex-English professor (John Travolta) and his wannabe-writer mentee (Gabriel Macht), both alcoholics in a foggy melancholy.
She returns to her mother's house to discover that it is inhabited by two men, one an aging alcoholic, Bobby Long (John Travolta).Has potential as a story of reconciliation and unexpected friendships but doesn't ever really spark to life.
When I first selected this film on the Encore package I knew it would be a good one because John Travolta has emerged as one of the great actors of our time.
He has come a long way since his dancing days in 'Saturday Night Fevor.' I was not disappointed, as the entire cast was outstanding and the screenplay writer put up one out of the south as it is today.The music was terrific and, although the film may be slow to some, why don't you watch a movie with an aging Bruce Willis or Sylvestor Stallone trying to act like a stud?
if you miss New Orleans watch this movie.
There is so much wonderful about this movie, John Travolta, Scarlett Johannsen, the director who also wrote the screenplay...listening to the words and music is so beautiful that it can move you to tears.
I will probably see the movie since I love John Travolta, but I am already a little put off.
request for a real quote from the movie A Love Song for Bobby Long.