A Love Song for Bobby Long

A Love Song for Bobby Long is a 2004 American drama film written and directed by Shainee Gabel. The screenplay is based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps.

Combining elements of Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner, the story focuses on eighteen-year-old Purslane Hominy Will, who leaves the Florida trailer park where she lives with her abusive boyfriend to return to her hometown of New Orleans following
the drug overdose death of her jazz singer mother Lorraine, a free spirit she hadn’t seen for several years.

The girl is startled to discover one-time Auburn University professor of literature Bobby Long and his protégé and former teaching assistant, struggling writer Lawson Pines, living in her dilapidated childhood home.

Both men are heavy drinkers who spend their days smoking numerous cigarettes, quoting Dylan Thomas, Benjamin Franklin, and T.S. Eliot, playing chess, and spending time with the neighbours while Bobby strums a guitar and sings melancholy country-folk songs.

The two convince Pursy her mother left the house to all three of them, although in reality she is the sole heir and the time they legally are allowed to remain in it is limited by the terms of the will.

Pursy moves in and proves to be the most responsible and sensible member of the dysfunctional family the three create. The men’s efforts to drive her away gradually abate as they grow fond of her with the passing of time. Bobby – unshaven, slovenly, and
suffering from ailments he prefers to ignore – attempts to improve the lot of the young girl by introducing her to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and encouraging her to return to high school and get her diploma.

Lawson, suffering from writer’s block, finds himself attracted to Pursy but hesitant to complicate his life further by becoming involved with her. Memories of Lorraine linger for all of them, especially Pursy, who vividly recalls her mother ignoring her
in favor of pursuing a career. Her sense of who her mother was is altered somewhat when she finds a cache of letters Lorraine wrote her but never mailed, letters that lead her to discover not only how her mother really felt about her, but the true identity
of her father as well.

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Posted by Taha Habib on Jan 2 2012. Filed under Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry