A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)

Absolutely amazing

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

for each detail. for New Orleans who becomes part of the stories about it. for John Travolta who reminds his real artistic virtues. for story, heavy, cool, fascinating, slow, dramatic and familiar, for Gabriel Macht behind "Suits" and for Scarlett Johansson and her science to escape by the temptation of clichés. one of old fashion about South, with strong flavor and the time different by the rest of world, a poem about friendship and about solitude and about the escaping from yourself.

Many movies grow on you if you watch them more than once. You may become to know the characters, and welcome them once again. This is how these characters are, as if people living down your own street. I love it. The only who would reject this movie are those ACTION FILM FANS who want to see something explode. It was a fantastic movie and all three main characters will touch on your emotions. Especially Percyleanne, (Scarlett Johansson) who, like the rest, learn more about themselves from each other than at any other time in their lives. You might develop a new taste for some other music, as well. The soundtrack offers plenty afresh.As far as the soundtrack goes, I'm surprised Scarlett did not record in any of the songs like Travolta did. She has been working in the studio. Yet to hear her singing.

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

The European market is overflowing with US productions and most of the times we - the European public - manage to appreciate what is thrown at us from Hollywood. However, some movies truly get lost in translation. This one is a perfect example. New Orleans and the Louisiana are almost always depicted in movies as a country quite different from the rest of the US. The folks living down there are portrayed as unpleasant, racist, Gothic, mysterious and incredibly weird. Not mention drunkards. Given this background we are also given two big stars (Travolta and Johansson) and a couple of minor characters. The whole story is basically about Travolta trying to win an Oscar and Johansson trying to do the same. Both characters talk a lot and everything else sinks under the weight of their lengthy and boring dialogs. There should be something involving painful stories from the past and a bit of redemption, but nothing in the plot goes beyond mediocrity.What gets lost in translation is the whole Southern setting which probably should bring something to the story, but to me it meant only that people in Louisiana are not very elegant.The main thing I retained from this movie is that two big stars accepted to appear in less than attractive make-up and clothing and to look like regular people (a refreshing sight, I have to admit). Unfortunately, I felt not the slightest involvement in their allegedly sad story exactly because in these days huge stars alway play OTT (the secret agent, the slick assassin, the millionaire seductress) and are quite unbelievable as normal people.Boring, boring, boring movie.