Well-intentioned but doesn't quite hit the mark.A young woman, Pursy (played by Scarlett Johansson), learns that her estranged mother has died in New Orleans. She returns to her mother's house to discover that it is inhabited by two men, one an aging alcoholic, Bobby Long (John Travolta).Has potential as a story of reconciliation and unexpected friendships but doesn't ever really spark to life. The characters aren't that engaging. Bobby Long is initially quite repulsive and though he gets easier to like the further you get into the movie, I just never found him likable. Pursy is probably the most engaging but even she doesn't really have a direction, so you don't know how to support her.Plot seems to drag in the middle too, making the movie dull at times. End pulls everything together well and is a reward for getting through the movie. Quite emotional conclusion.Good work from Scarlett Johansson, then only 19 or so, in the lead role. John Travolta is okay as Bobby Long, but I can't help but feel he doesn't quite get the curmudgeonliness and Southern folksiness right. Someone like Billy Bob Thornton or Tommy Lee Jones would have been better in the role.

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.

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.

I liked this film, but one thing I can't figure out is why the characters of Travolta and Macht gave no signs of being a couple. The explanation given for the fact that the teacher and student spent nine years living together is that the student, Macht, felt guilty about the death of the teacher's son. That and the fact that he had promised to write Bobby Long's (Travolta) biography. That's just not credible enough a motive for spending so much time together in poverty and booze.By any standards of plausibility, there should at least have been the insinuation of an amorous past between the two. Otherwise it just looks odd.