Scarlett gets a GED and Travolta plays an old drunk with a black toe.
A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:98
Fresh:42
Rotten:56
Average Rating:5.5/10
Runtime: 2 hrs
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Lions Gate Films' A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is the poignant story of a wayward girl and two men, each scarred by their pasts, who struggle to mend their broken lives and create a home together in... Lions Gate Films' A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is the poignant story of a wayward girl and two men, each scarred by their pasts, who struggle to mend their broken lives and create a home together in a forgotten section of New Orleans. Starring John Travolta, Scarlett Johannson, Gabriel Macht and Deborah Kara Unger, A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is the feature film directorial debut of Shainee Gabel (ANTHEM), who wrote the screenplay based on Ronald Everett Capps' soon-to-be-published novel, Off Magazine Street. The film is produced by Bob Yari, R. Paul Miller and David Lancaster. Upon hearing of her mother's death, jaded teenage loner Purslane Hominy Will (Scarlett Johansson) returns to New Orleans for the first time in years, ready to reclaim her childhood home. Expecting to find her late mother's house abandoned, Pursy is shocked to discover that it is inhabited by two of her mother's friends: Bobby Long (John Travolta), a former literature professor, and his young protégé, Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht). These broken men, whose lives took a wrong turn years before, have been firmly rooted in the dilapidated house for years, encouraged only by Lawson's faltering ambitions to write a novel about Bobby Long's life. Having no intention of leaving, Pursy, Bobby Long and Lawson are all forced to live together. Yet as time passes, their tenuous, makeshift arrangement unearths a series of buried personal secrets that challenges their bonds, and reveals just how inextricably their lives are intertwined... A story about love and human frailty, A LOVE SONG FOR BOBBY LONG is at once a lyrical ode to the rich, decaying romanticism of New Orleans and a powerful drama about lives haunted by the past. -- © Lions Gate Films [More]
Starring: John Travolta, Scarlett Johansson, Gabriel Macht, Deborah Kara Unger
Starring: John Travolta, Scarlett Johansson, Gabriel Macht, Deborah Kara Unger
Director: Shainee Gabel, Bob Yari
Director: Shainee Gabel
Screenwriter: Shainee Gabel
Producer: Brad Krevoy, Randall Emmett, George Furla
Director: Bob Yari
Producer: R. Paul Miller, David Lancaster
Studio: Lions Gate Films
Reviews for A Love Song for Bobby Long
When A Love Song for Bobby Long concentrates on moving its plot forward, it aims too wide and clumsily lays bare all its secrets and twists.
Gabel has potentially challenging material on her hands but her treatment of it feels too hygienic, mistaking tastefulness for subtlety
John is a fine actor, he's not quite a match for this part, nor does his southern accent ring true. Perhaps Billy Bob Thornton would have made a better cast.
Generates a bit of sentiment when it’s looking the other way but it’s too little too late.
Tries the patience of sober viewers, who are likely to envy the onscreen eccentrics their ever-present plastic cups of Abita...
The acting by Scarlett Johansson is so raw and sincere that the film leaves an impact despite its deficiencies.
might be a story with greatest appeal to those who like their conflicts and issues soft, quiet, and unexplosive
A Love Song For Bobby Long is a heart-affecting drama about an improvised family fashioned with love, care, and creativity by writer and director Shainee Gabel.
It must be said that the Hollywood Foreign Press, in this case anyway, was dead-on: the movie belongs to Scarlett Johansson.
The film shares many qualities with its rambling and at times honestly endearing characters: it's sloppy, decent-hearted and most often embarrassing.
Qualifies, barely, as a guilty pleasure...with its generous scrapbook of literary wisdom and pleasantly overcooked performances.
Saturated with fertile colors and great regional rock and blues, the unhurried atmosphere seems as intoxicated as its characters.
It's tough to sell a drama, though, if it doesn't find some natural way to rise above the ordinary, and that's this movie's biggest challenge.
Latest News for A Love Song for Bobby Long
January 06, 2005:
John Travolta and James Gandolfini Join Lonely Hearts
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