‘A Love Song for Bobby Long’ seduces actor John Travolta
It’s easy to understand how “A Love Song for Bobby Long” seduced John Travolta. The 50-year-old actor pockets $20 million for broad action fare such as “Face/Off,” “Broken Arrow” and “Basic,” and such projects fuel his private interests, which include owning jets, but do little to feed his artistic side. On the surface, “Bobby Long” probably seemed like something that would challenge him, since Travolta would be playing an aging, silver-haired, alcoholic ex-literature professor on a downward spiral in New Orleans.
The R-rated picture proves that what looks like a challenge can sometimes transform into a bad joke.
Though well-intentioned, “Bobby Long” proves a dreary tale that drags along like a barroom drunk telling a story and slurring the words in every sentence.
Based on Ronald Everett Capps’ novel “Off East Magazine St.,” the story concerns a poor 18-year-old, Pursy (Scarlett Johansson of “Lost in Translation”), who learns that her estranged mother, Lorraine, has died and travels to Louisiana to get the deceased woman’s affairs in order. Once at her mother’s crumbling home, Pursy is lied to by Alabama-native Bobby Long (Travolta), who tells the girl that the Lorraine stipulated that she should share the home with him and his former student, Lawson (Gabriel Macht), another highly educated person drinking his life away.
To no one’s surprise, Pursy, who generates plenty of sexual tension, brings out the best in the two barflies, and the three form an extended family. Soon after, secrets are revealed, and the daughter learns that the mother who she thought had deserted her long ago possessed incredible love in her heart.
The funereal-paced tale, directed by Philadelphia native Shainee Gabel (“Anthem”), takes so long to get to the modestly interesting revelations that the trip seems less refreshing than being snowed in at the airport.
FILM REVIEW
“A Love Song for Bobby Long”
Grade: C-
Starring: John Travolta, Scarlett Johansson and Gabriel Macht; written by Shainee Gabel, based on the novel “Off East Magazine St.” by Ronald Everett Capps; produced by Bob Yari, R. Paul Miller and David Lancaster; directed by Gabel.
Running Time: 119 minutes.
Parental Guide: R rating (harsh four-letter profanity, sexual elements, adult themes).