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. The rest of the movie is a long and not terribly interesting character study of these three characters and how they eventually bond. Sadly, the true central character in the film, Percy's mother, is dead when the film begins and her relationship with the three main characters is fuzzy at the beginning of the film and kept fuzzy throughout most of the film's running time. Perhaps if we had known a little more about the relationships Percy's mom had with these people, the film might have been more successful in sustaining our interest; however, by the time we learn what we've been wanting to learn, so much time has passed that we really don't care anymore. Despite Scarlett Johansson's strongest performance to date and Travolta's first serious foray into the category of "Character actor", the whole thing comes off like a photographed stage play...bad Tennessee Williams and about 45 minutes before the credits roll, we just want the characters to drink enough to pass out so we don't have to listen to them anymore.
Review of A Love Song for Bobby Long
