A Love Song for Bobby Long is a 2004 American psychological drama film directed and written by Shainee Gabel, based on the novel Off Magazine Street by Ronald Everett Capps. It stars John Travolta as the title character, an aging alcoholic, and Scarlett Johansson as a headstrong young woman who returns to New Orleans, Louisiana after her estranged mother's death. The film had its world premiere at the 61st Venice International Film Festival on September 2, 2004. It began a limited release in the United States on December 29, 2004, followed by a wide release on January 21, 2005, by Lions Gate Films. Johansson received her third Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance. Plot After her mother Lorraine, a jazz singer whom she felt neglected her for her career, dies from a drug overdose, 18-year-old Purslane “Pursy” Hominy Will leaves a Florida trailer park, where she lives with an abusive boyfriend, to return to her hometown of New Orleans, after having dropped out of high school and left the city. She is surprised to find strangers living in her mother's dilapidated home: Bobby Long, a former professor of literature at Auburn University, and his protégé and former teaching assistant, Lawson Pines, a struggling writer. Both heavy drinkers and smokers, they pass time quoting poets, playing chess, and spending time with the neighbors; Long also sings country-folk songs. The two convince Pursy that her mother left the house to all three of them. More exactly, the truth is that Pursy is the sole heir, and her mother's will limits how long the other two can stay in the house. Pursy moves in, acting as the most responsible member of the evolving dysfunctional family. The men's efforts to drive her away decline as they grow more fond of her. Bobby - slovenly and suffering from ailments he prefers to ignore - tries to improve Pursy by introducing her to the novel The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter; he also encourages her to return to high school and get her degree. Lawson is attracted to her but hesitates to become involved. The three have memories of Lorraine, especially Pursy, who feels that her mother ignored her to pursue her jazz career. When she finds a cache of letters her mother wrote to her but never mailed, Pursy learns more about how Lorraine felt about her, and the identity of her biological father.