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A Love Song for Bobby Long

A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)

September. 02,2004
|
7.1
|
R
| Drama

A headstrong young woman returns to New Orleans after the death of her estranged mother.

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Console
2004/09/02

best movie i've ever seen.

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Cleveronix
2004/09/03

A different way of telling a story

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Baseshment
2004/09/04

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

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Usamah Harvey
2004/09/05

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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SnoopyStyle
2004/09/06

Purslane Hominy Will (Scarlett Johansson) is surprised to hear about her mother Lorraine's death. She misses her funeral. She returns to New Orleans to find former professor Bobby Long (John Travolta) and Lawson Pines (Gabriel Macht) living in her mother's house. Bobby tells her that her mother left the house to all three of them. She decides to stay in the house. Georgianna (Deborah Kara Unger) is the bartender.This is a long meandering aimless movie like a leisurely lazy summer day. Travalto is acting for all his worth to be a faded drunk. Johnansson outshines everybody. She's not only holding her own against Travalto. At an early age, she shows that she's becoming a true movie star. It's got some good Southern moodiness but the story has no drive.

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RioRep
2004/09/07

I thought this movie was beautiful. All actors' performances are really good. And the characters were very well depicted by them and the director. Even though you may wonder as the film goes on if Pursley is Bobby's daughter, which she actually is, it doesn't keep you to intrigued with that's going on in their lives. And the way the truth is finally revealed and how they react to it is mesmerizing. A feeling of joy scape and reaches you in the middle of all the chaos that their lives had emerged. Not holding back any moment, you fall in love with all that mess and charms of these people that without having a real clue are trying to do something good with their lives, even though they're not sure about it. It's a real life story well told.

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jerrywolfe
2004/09/08

A better title? The last hit by Bobby Long. Was this production underwritten by R.J. Reynolds? I've never seen so many cigarettes smoked in a single film. Or maybe it was just product placement gone wild? You can expect Travolta to be smoking as he does in almost everything he does, but every main cast person? By the way, it really doesn't take ten lines to express the visual problem with this film, but that's what the "guidelines" require. Who creates these "guideline"? Not every film reviewed is "Gone With The Wind", how about updating the guidelines so that shorter and to the point comments can be included? I can understand having an upper limit so that it doesn't get out of control, but a minimum of 10 lines?www.boskolives.wordpress.com

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Chrivhec
2004/09/09

...to wonder where the Oscars were when this film was released. They sure are weird things, those prestigious Academy Awards. Sometimes great pictures are left unrewarded, although they deserve at least one or multiple nominations. But they just don't get them. This happened many times, for instance in 1996 with the film Heat. What a movie that was, without a doubt one of the best movies of the nineties. Still it didn't get any Oscars, not even nominations. According to myself and many others, Heat definitely should've been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Writing, and maybe for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Pacino or De Niro, both are equally good). Apparently this wasn't the case for the Academy.The same thing happened in 2005, with this film. At some point I can understand why A Love Song for Bobby Long wasn't nominated for the Best Picture Award, because I too have some mixed feelings about the ending of the film. The film ended rather sad, and personally I think that another more positive ending would have been more appropriate for this film. If it was me, I wouldn't have let Bobby die. Not because I don't like bad endings, just because the storyline requires a hopeful ending, without taking out one of the lead characters. I would have given him the opportunity to build a future with his daughter, to experience what it's like to live with a goal again, especially because he lost his family before. But that's just me.Besides the less appropriate ending, the entire movie was just phenomenal and unforgettable. And that's mostly because of the amazing performances of the cast. You can't fool me that the performances in this movie weren't good enough to be nominated for the Oscars. There were lots of great performances in this movie and every single one deserves to be mentioned. And although I thought I knew what he was capable of, John Travolta blew me away with his incredible performance as Bobby Long. Saturday Night Fever, Pulp Fiction, Face/Off, Hairspray, … the characters of these films don't really have anything in common; still Travolta is able to play these characters as well as possible. No one could have performed better. Is there anything the man can't do? With this movie he sure proves that he is definitely still one of the best actors of his generation. As always he puts his heart into this film, making it as good as it can be. And I've got the feeling that he will surprise us even more in the future. This is a man with unknown talents, with maybe the best yet to come. As said, all performances in this movie deserve to be mentioned. And because I don't want to copy the list of the cast, here's my opinion of what Oscar nominations this film should've gotten:Best Actor in a Leading Role: John Travolta. Best Actress in a Leading Role: Scarlett Johansson. Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Gabriel Macht.Unfortunately I'm no Academy. But it doesn't take an experienced movie maker to say that this film goes beyond the average drama/comedy. It will never be forgotten.

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