Love Song

for each detail. for New Orleans who becomes part of the stories about it. for John Travolta who reminds his real artistic virtues. for story, heavy, cool, fascinating, slow, dramatic and familiar, for Gabriel Macht behind "Suits" and for Scarlett Johansson and her science to escape by the temptation of clichés. one of old fashion about South, with strong flavor and the time different by the rest of world, a poem about friendship and about solitude and about the escaping from yourself.

In Florida, the teenager Purslane Hominy Will (Scarlett Johansson) is lately informed by her mate that her mother passed away. She returns to her hometown, New Orleans, for the funeral and decided to live in her mother's house. 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. She decides to share the place living together with them and after their initial difficult relationship, they disclose deep secrets and improve their lives.

"A Love Song for Bobby Long" is a bitter tale of love, friendship and synergy of invisible people. With many citations of important writers, the dramatic story has excellent lines and is very positive, with good messages and a well resolved conclusion. 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. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Uma Canção de Amor Para Bobby Long" ("A Love Song for Bobby Long")

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. He is living in filth with Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht) who, as Bobby's teaching assistant whom Bobby has deemed gifted, has followed Bobby to write Bobby's biography - a work in progress that has stalemated in favor of alcoholism and disillusionment. Pursey hears that Booby and Lawson were Lorraine's closest friends (she had invited them to flop in her shabby house, entertained by their low key scholasticism and literature quoting), and that Lorraine had willed her home to the three of them.

Pursey moves in reluctantly - she has nowhere else to go - and immediately is at odds with her 'roommates'. Likewise Bobby and Lawson resist Pursey's presence and insist she 'get a life' by returning to high school, making use of her obvious intellect. The verbal sparing that eventually leads the three to find a sense of family lays the foundation for the predictable conclusion.

That is the simplicity of the tale - if it is storyline that is important to you. Gabel's distillation of Capps' novel is in the atmosphere she creates with these gifted actors. Bobby may be a drunk but he is the spokesman for a neighborhood of sad broken lives. The world is confined to the street that contains the local bar, churches, and graveyards - each of varying importance but all drenched in humidity and frequent rains and alcohol and aimless living. The local bar is tended by Georgiana (Deborah Kara Unger) with whom Lawson is having a strained affair. The folk who gather at Bobby's literature-spouting soirees include gardener Cecil (Dane Rhodes), Junior (David Jensen), to mention only a few well-defined characters. That anyone could alter the ennui in the way Pursey changes things is a minor miracle.

The minimal music score by Grayson Capps is atmospheric as are the off-screen comments and quotations of great literature of TS Eliot, Robert Frost, WH Auden et al. The cinematography by Eliot Davis is properly claustrophobic and decadent in atmosphere. 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. As for Shainee Gabel (whose only other film was the controversial 'Anthem') here is a writer and director to watch. The DVD contains some excellent deleted scenes and one of the more informative 'making of' segments with Gabel, Travolta, Johansson, Macht, and Rhodes speaking with quiet eloquence. Highly recommended.

This is a movie about two alcoholics. One middle-aged and the other on his way to that age. It's difficult to say which company they prefer, the bottle or each other.

Than the young girl arrives and shakes their world. You've seen that theme many times in movie history, but this is for once done in a very intelligent way. Gabriel Macht is very good and Scarlett Johansson, the greatest talent of her young generation, too. But Travolta is probably doing the part of his life so far. 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. But this one does. The end is sentimental, but never mind. The ride towards that is really worth seeing.

Greetings again from the darkness. A good story overcomes many flaws for a movie and this is a prime example. Inconsistent direction by Shainee Gabel and a weak Cajun accent by John Travolta did not ruin what I found to be very interesting subject matter. Although we never see the local legend, Lorraine, her impact on this strange troupe of characters is beyond question. Watching Scarlett Johansson's quest to unlock her mother's mystique (and her own history) proved very enjoyable for this viewer. Johansson's Purcy Will (named after a weed) is both head strong and independent, while vulnerable and eager. 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. Much of this is predictable and the flavor that is New Orleans plays a huge part of the feel of the film. Although the novel was difficult to bring to the screen, and improvements could have been made, this film should find an audience. Johansson may a bit "old" for this role (at the ripe age of 20) but her acting skills continue to grow and I love that she is always up for a challenge. She should be fun to watch for years to come.