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

Release Year: 2004

Rating: 7.1/10 (14,944 voted)

Critic's Score: 48/100

Director: Shainee Gabel

Stars: Scarlett Johansson, John Travolta, Gabriel Macht

Storyline
Upon hearing of her mother's death, jaded teenage loner Purslane Hominy Will returns to New Orleans for the first time in years, ready to reclaim her childhood home. Expecting to find her late mother's house abandoned, Pursy is shocked to discover that it is inhabited by two of her mother's friends: Bobby Long, a former literature professor, and his young protégé, Lawson Pines. These broken men, whose lives took a wrong turn years before, have been firmly rooted in the dilapidated house for years, encouraged only by Lawson's faltering ambitions to write a novel about Bobby Long's life. Having no intention of leaving, Pursy, Bobby Long and Lawson are all forced to live together. Yet as time passes, their tenuous, makeshift arrangement unearths a series of buried personal secrets that challenges their bonds, and reveals just how inextricably their lives are intertwined.

Writers: Ronald Everett Capps, Shainee Gabel

Cast:
John Travolta - Bobby Long
Scarlett Johansson - Pursy Will
Gabriel Macht - Lawson Pines
Deborah Kara Unger - Georgianna
Dane Rhodes - Cecil
David Jensen - Junior
Clayne Crawford - Lee
Sonny Shroyer - Earl
Carol Sutton - Ruthie
Walter Breaux - Ray
Warren Kole - Sean (as Warren Blosjo)
Bernard Johnson - Tiny
Gina 'Ginger' Bernal - Waitress
Douglas M. Griffin - Man #1 (as Douglas Griffin)
Earl Maddox - Man #2

Taglines: The heart is a lonely hunter.

Release Date: 21 January 2005

Filming Locations: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Opening Weekend: €201,295 (Italy) (10 October 2004) (101 Screens)

Gross: $159,171 (USA) (13 February 2005)

Runtime: 119 min

Trivia:
The production ran into budgetary problems halfway through. Several background extras were brought to a New Orleans location, fitted for costumes, fed dinner, and then sent home without pay because their scene had been cut. Some New Orleans retailers complained that thousands of dollars worth of clothes were returned unused because the scenes they were bought for were never filmed.

Goofs:
Continuity: When Pursy is leaving the house, she is wearing shorts. When she comes out on the street with all her belongings, she is wearing long jeans.

Quotes:
Lawson Pines: That girl looks so much like Lorraine. Remember the first time you took me to see her sing was my first time in New Orleans.
[pause]
Lawson Pines: I was so taken.
Bobby Long: Well... you were kind of. You were kind of sheltered. Choked by that silver spoon.
Lawson Pines: I thought she was so beautiful.
Bobby Long: She was.

this is a great film

Rating: 10/10

This may be one of john travolta's finest acting roles. The critic reviews were lukewarm, and it seems the movie wasn't released in many theaters for people to see, which is a shame. This is a gem of a film. It takes place in new orleans and follows the lives of three unlikely roommates. Two drunken men living in a dilapidated house of a dead woman, and the woman's estranged only daughter who comes to claim her inheritance-a third of the house. With no place to go, the three stay together under the same roof and a friendship somehow grows, like grass through a sidewalk crack. Well acted, and well directed, there are times the pace of the film seems to slacken but it doesn't take away from the story being told. All in all, one of my favorite films no one saw this year.

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