| 80 |
The Hollywood Reporter
Ray Bennett
Captivating drama delivers literary flair and Louisiana music and great roles for a grizzled John Travolta and lovely Scarlett Johansson.
|
| 80 |
Film Threat
Heidi Martinuzzi
Johansson is a stunningly charismatic actress. She gives Travolta a serious run for his money.
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| 80 |
Los Angeles Times
Among other things, the characters in A Love Song for Bobby Long really know how to turn a phrase, in itself a pleasure so rare it all but demands any flaws be forgiven.
|
| 75 |
ReelViews
The acting by Scarlett Johansson is so raw and sincere that the film leaves an impact despite its deficiencies.
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| 75 |
Chicago Tribune
Bobby Long can enchant you. It's a film that feels lived in, confident despite its conventions.
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| 75 |
Christian Science Monitor
Rambling, meandering, likable.
|
| 75 |
Chicago Sun-Times
The movie tries for tragedy and reaches only pathos, but then Bobby lost his chance to be a tragic hero by living this long in the first place.
|
| 70 |
Variety
A pedigree cast elevates old-fashioned material and lackluster screenwriting.
|
| 63 |
New York Daily News
The sole asset of "Bobby Long" is Johansson. Blossoming before our very eyes, she gives Pursy the combination of hope and determination that makes her journey worthwhile.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
An accomplished feature debut with stunning cinematography (by Elliot Davis), a jambalaya story line and yet another heart-stopping performance by Scarlett Johansson.
|
| 60 |
Chicago Reader
This is mainly the girl's story, though the numerous southern archetypes out of Tennessee Williams and Carson McCullers (who's explicitly referenced) keep threatening to overwhelm her.
|
| 60 |
Dallas Observer
Melissa Levine
It never jells. Primarily, it can't rise above two major weaknesses: a plangent, plaintive script and the inadequacies of John Travolta.
|
| 58 |
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Travolta has dusted off his folksy Southern character from "Primary Colors" (one of his most acclaimed roles) and he has his moments with it.
|
| 50 |
San Francisco Chronicle
It's engaging and transparent at once.
|
| 50 |
Miami Herald
Johansson is magnetic enough to make this batch of Southern-fried corn almost digestible.
|
| 50 |
LA Weekly
Not terrible for a movie featuring John Travolta as a literature professor, but not too good either.
|
| 50 |
TV Guide
This smooth concoction goes down with a pleasant tingle and leaves behind a warm glow.
|
| 50 |
Premiere
One of those slow-baked Southern character studies about taking an old flat tire of a man and finding some way to love him anyway.
|
| 50 |
Rolling Stone
It's the stunning location photography of camera ace Elliot Davis that provides what the movie itself lacks: authenticity.
|
| 50 |
Wall Street Journal
The movie's real star is the cinematographer, Elliot Davis -- his images carry more emotional freight than all the performances put together.
|
| 50 |
USA Today
Even in the junky potboilers that John Travolta has persisted in making since his "Pulp Fiction" comeback (all 5,000 of them), you usually get the sense that he's acting in his bailiwick.
|
| 50 |
New York Magazine
John Travolta finds no artistic breathing-room in A Love Song for Bobby Long.
|
| 42 |
Portland Oregonian
The result is an exercise in emoting that features one of the worst Southern accents in recent memory and does about as much to establish the actor's range as "Battlefield Earth."
|
| 42 |
Entertainment Weekly
A poky dawdle of a Southern-style indie that would pass without notice but for John Travolta and Scarlett Johansson.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
The hokey solemnity of A Love Song for Bobby Long suggests "The Mundane Secrets of the Ya-Ya Brotherhood" or "The Notebook Goes to the Big Easy." The movie is another example of Hollywood's going soft and squishy when it goes South.
|
| 38 |
New York Post
Macht is the best thing in A Love Song for Bobby Long, but his intelligent performance doesn't justify a tough, and very long, sit.
|
| 38 |
Boston Globe
Works hard to give quirk a bad name.
|
| 30 |
Washington Post
Maybe they should have called A Love Song for Bobby Long something more appropriately descriptive, such as "When Actors Imitating Southern Characters Go Bad."
|
| 30 |
Washington Post
Traffics in nearly every trite cliche of the "colorful" South one can think of, from its pseudo-Gothic aesthetic to its overripe dialogue.
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| 30 |
Village Voice
At least Macht emerges relatively unscathed from the mess, content to brood and mutter self-loathing observations while Johansson and (most painfully) Travolta spoon their Southern accents out of a jar and spread it all over the humid scenery.
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| 10 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
No movie that opens with the line "Time was never a friend to Bobby Long" could possibly be any good, and sure enough, A Love Song For Bobby Long lives down to its squibbed kickoff.
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