The camera opens shooting a man who the audience later discovers as Bobby Long (John Travolta) who lights a cigarette amidst the haze of alcohol while stumbling towards the door with a paper bag covering a bottle of booze.  When Bobby opens the door blinding light enter the room, as if the daylight would be something foreign and new to him.  Stumbling Bobby moves in an intended direction, as if he has a purpose. He limps due to a discolored toe that probably gives him difficulty in wearing proper shoes, as he wears a slipper on the aching foot.  Limping and stumbling Bobby arrives to a graveyard to pay his respects to Lorraine, someone near and dear who recently has passed away.

Some distance away from New Orleans in Florida lives Pursy Will (Scarlett Johansson) Lorraine's only daughter who finds out from her deadbeat boyfriend that her mother has died.  Angry Pursy packs her belonging and leaves for New Orleans to attend the funeral, as she discovers that she has arrived too late and two men live in her mother's decaying house, Bobby and Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht).  Quickly, Pursy learns that these men are not leaving, and these two alcoholic losers, especially Bobby, do not desire her presence.  Nonetheless, she stays, as she has nowhere else to go.

A Love Song for Bobby Long brings the audience on a venture into the part of human society where most do not want to go, as people link it with losers, deadbeats, and misfits - the undesirables.  Despite the bleakness of the situation there are also moments of sunshine and pleasantness, which brighten the existence for all of those who try to forget and avoid society.  The moment of brightness begins to intensify as Pursy arrived, as her name also refers to a yellow flowering weed, yet she keeps on verbally beating down herself and alike.  Something is missing in Pursy's dropout existence, something that Bobby and Lawson recognize, as Bobby used to be an English professor and Lawson his teaching assistant. 

Eventually, Pursy pursues her General Educational Development (GED) test with a possibility to reach college.  However, Pursy struggles with her societal existence, as she perceives herself as a misfit, an undesirable.  Her negative self-perspective makes it hard for her to academically bloom, which both Lawson and Bobby recognize as they keep on encouraging her to study.  This leaves the audience with the notion of human dualism, as she does not want to be where she is; yet she does not want to leave.

Director Shainee Gabel provides an interesting and thoughtful cinematic experience, which the audience can experience through lucid and cryptic reasoning concealed in literature, existential philosophy and psychology.  The mise-en-scene and the framing of scenes enhance the situational atmosphere, which seems to grasp one part of New Orleans with delicate touch and tact.  This combined with a well-performing cast and a script with empathetic and genuine feel ultimately offers a seriously intriguing story of second chances, hope, and love.

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COUNTRY

USA

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