Up front I want to say I cannot write objectively about "Love Song For Bobby Long". When my wife was house-sitting for good friends in New Orleans, next to Audubon Park, filming for this movie was going on. She grew up in New Orleans, and I consider it a second home. I have spent much time in Audubon Park, on the Saint Charles Avenue street cars, on the levee at the Mississippi River, and in the French Quarter, all locations used in making this movie. So, while I enjoyed the story, I also enjoyed seeing these characters inhabit the territory I know so well. Even if it had been a bad story, I would have enjoyed the movie.
But ... it is a good story. A story about three misfits thrown together as a result of someone else's misfortune. And the story is about how they each discover something about themselves, and grow as a result. A growth each would not experienced, had they not been in the situation. John Travolta is always good, and here he is Bobby Long, former Literature Professor who has dropped out of the mainstream. Scarlett Johansson is perfect as Pursy Will, a high school dropout who looks at waiting tables as an acceptable career. Gabriel Macht is Lawson Pines, a genuine follower, a former protégé of Bobby Long's and erstwhile "author" who can't seem to write anything good. The movie develops deliberately, somewhat like reading a book, and always interesting.
SPOILERS. Pursy is living with her boyfriend in Panama City, Florida, and one day he incidentally tells her Bobby Long called to say her mother had died. She is too late for the funeral, but the gravestone tells us she was 40. She goes to check out the house in Gretna, near the levee, but finds Bobby and Lawson living there in squalor, two apparent drunkards who have no obvious income. They tell her that the will left the house to each of them, one-third owners. What they didn't tell her was they could stay there up to one year, then it belonged to Pursy alone. In a rather long process Pursy gets her GED, looking through her mom's things finds letters to Pursy that she never had the courage to mail, and also finds out Bobby Long is her father. There are many other complications, but Bobby doesn't take care of an infected foot and dies a year later. Lawson writes the book, "Love Song For Bobby Long". Pursy gains confidence and looks towards a career.
But ... it is a good story. A story about three misfits thrown together as a result of someone else's misfortune. And the story is about how they each discover something about themselves, and grow as a result. A growth each would not experienced, had they not been in the situation. John Travolta is always good, and here he is Bobby Long, former Literature Professor who has dropped out of the mainstream. Scarlett Johansson is perfect as Pursy Will, a high school dropout who looks at waiting tables as an acceptable career. Gabriel Macht is Lawson Pines, a genuine follower, a former protégé of Bobby Long's and erstwhile "author" who can't seem to write anything good. The movie develops deliberately, somewhat like reading a book, and always interesting.
SPOILERS. Pursy is living with her boyfriend in Panama City, Florida, and one day he incidentally tells her Bobby Long called to say her mother had died. She is too late for the funeral, but the gravestone tells us she was 40. She goes to check out the house in Gretna, near the levee, but finds Bobby and Lawson living there in squalor, two apparent drunkards who have no obvious income. They tell her that the will left the house to each of them, one-third owners. What they didn't tell her was they could stay there up to one year, then it belonged to Pursy alone. In a rather long process Pursy gets her GED, looking through her mom's things finds letters to Pursy that she never had the courage to mail, and also finds out Bobby Long is her father. There are many other complications, but Bobby doesn't take care of an infected foot and dies a year later. Lawson writes the book, "Love Song For Bobby Long". Pursy gains confidence and looks towards a career.