A Love Song for Bobby Long

Literature-quoting lazy drama about a teen girl and two older boozers living in a hovel in New Orleans

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. As the story progresses, the truth is slowly revealed.

“A Love Song for Bobby Long” (2004) is a sluggish, sometimes humorous drama set in The Big Easy with lotsa poetry & prose, as well as jazz, blues and folk. It’s very literature-quoting in the manner of flicks like “Dead Poets Society” (1989), “Finding Forrester” (2000), “The Squid and the Whale” (2005) and numerous Woody Allen flicks.

While the story is lethargic and lacks the drive of “Dead Poets Society,” there’s something to be said for an intelligent American film that dares to take its time and is filled with verbiage that assumes the viewer is well-read. Plus the story perks up in the final act and cutie Johansson is always a pleasure.

The movie runs 1 hour, 59 minutes and was shot in New Orleans & Gretna, Louisiana.

GRADE: B-/C+

It was the invisible people he wanted to live with. The one that we walk past every day. The ones we sometimes become. The ones in books who live only in someone's minds eye. He was a man who was destined to go through life and not around it. A man who was sure the shortest path to heaven was straight through hell.

A Love Song for Bobby Long is a straight up masterpiece. This movie isn’t some action packed sci-fi movie or an emotionally draining drama. This movie is about the lives of two alcoholic failed academics, and a young woman destined for the same path. This movie is about the dull, for the dull.

The unconditional love and hatred between the characters is both relatable and terrifying. I think I see myself in Pursy more than I’d like to admit. Her lack of motivation, longing for memories of the life she never had… She’s a beautiful character, and beautifully portrayed.

Anyone who’s known me for more than 5 minutes knows that Scarlett Johansson might be my favourite person on the entire planet. She’s an amazing actor, comedian, entrepreneur, producer etc… Even though this might be one of her least popular movies, I think it’s one of her best.

This movie really captures the lives, and emotions of unknown people. The people who blend into the background. The nobodies, the highschool drop outs who lives rent to rent.

Family can be found, and it will be found even if you might not be looking for it. Even though their awkward relationship, these characters lived. They didn’t have some fake life like the influencers on social media. They lived.