A Love Song For Bobby Long

Drama

John Travolta	Bobby Long
Scarlett Johansson	Pursy Will
Gabriel Macht	Lawson Pines
Deborah Kara Unger	Georgianna
Dane Rhodes	Cecil
Clayne Crawford	Lee
Nick Loren	Merchant
Warren Blosjo	Sean
David Jensen	Junior
Sonny Shroyer	Earl
David Jensen (II)
Walter Breaux	Ray
Carol Sutton	Ruthie

Director	Shainee Gabel
Producer	Shainee Gabel; David Lancaster; Bob Yari; Anson Downes; Randall Emmett
Writer	Ronald Everett Capps; Shainee Gabel

A misfit drama in the grand Southern (by way of Hollywood) tradition, A Love Song for Bobby Long takes its cue from Carson McCullers's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Re-establishing his indie-cred, John Travolta adds Bobby Long to his gallery of colorful characters. Hobbled by an infected toe, the 50-something Bobby is a white-haired, unshaven, vodka-soaked mess. But he's also a former English professor, and the piles of books in his ramshackle house, and the authors he drunkenly quotes give him a wounded dignity. Just how wounded will be revealed over the course of this atmospheric tale of redemption and penance. Bobby lives with Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht), his former teaching assistant who is writing a book about his mentor, a project deferred by drinking, sitting around with the locals, or engaging in quotation oneupsmanship. Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation, Ghost World) holds her own against Travolta ("You are such a shameless ham," she chastises the loquacious Bobby) as Pursy, the estranged daughter of Lorraine, a recently deceased singer-songwriter in whose house Bobby and Lawson reside. A battle of wills between the two men and the headstrong young girl gives way to the formation of a tentative family unit. Pursy agrees to return to high school if Bobby and Lawson quit drinking. There will be the expected revelations, recriminations, and dramatic confrontations, but what makes this Love Songresonate are the performances by a cast that rarely hits a false note. --Donald Liebenson