A Love Song for Bobby Long (2004)

My wonderful friend Nichole told me this film was beautiful and instructed me to see it. Now, I have to get this off my chest before I explode: I hate Scarlett Johansson. She was okay in Ghost World. But, with each passing film I saw, she got more and more pretentious and her acting suffered. Not to mention I've never seen a more grating offscreen persona. So, that said, I was trepidatious about seeing the film, but I'm glad to report the film falls under 'very good' on the Modium Rating Scale.

So, the film managed to get to me on an emotional level. It shouldn't have, I know this is probably true, but it did nonetheless. The big twist is so obvious that I never thought it'd actually turn out to be true, so I put it out of my mind fairly early on, which made the effect much more powerful later. The characters are all well-portrayed, and seem to undergo changes right when they should, so you don't really get to know them so much that you can predict their actions too much, but just enough so you feel like you know them.

So, the hag was good in the film. Aside from the occasional Magical Disappearing Accent, she seemed to do a good job of showing just enough emotion to make the character seem real. Although, it is kind of funny that the first time you see her onscreen, she's in her panties. Whoops, so much for tact!

The biggest thing that bothered me about the film, humorously, was that John Travolta never played the guitar when he was supposed to. Maybe it's because I play guitar myself, but it was annoying to see his hand not even strumming in the long shots, not his fingers moving in the closeups. Christian Bale can lose 63 pounds, surviving on tuna and apples, and you can learn some strumming patterns, Johnny? Yeesh.